Chris Brogan, of ChrisBrogan.com, sends out a pretty awesome newsletter and 99% of the time I’m on board, or at least in the same train station he’s in. But today he said he thought that in spite of hiding his disability and the fact that he was crippled from his voters and the public, President Roosevelt was definitely an “AUTHENTIC PERSON.”

Huh? Sorry Chris. I strongly disagree, for a lot of reasons. Here, dear readers are the facts, the definition of “Authentic” so you can see where I’m blogging from:

Main Entry: au·then·tic
Pronunciation: \ə-ˈthen-tik, ȯ-\
Function: adjective

— au·then·tic·i·ty \ˌȯ-ˌthen-ˈti-sə-tē, -thən-\ noun
synonyms authentic, genuine, bona fide mean being actually and exactly what is claimed. authentic implies being fully trustworthy as according with fact ; it can also stress painstaking or faithful imitation of an original . genuine implies actual character not counterfeited, imitated, or adulterated ; it also connotes definite origin from a source . bona fide implies good faith and sincerity of intention .

To hide, diminish or represent some part of ourselves as other than it is - either spiritual, physical, emotional or intellectual is to be “Inauthentic.” In case you don’t know about President Roosevelt:

In August 1921, Roosevelt contracted an illness believed by his physicians to be polio, which resulted in his total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed. After he became President, he helped to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes). His leadership in this organization is one reason he is commemorated on the dime.

In 2003, a retrospective study found it was more likely that Roosevelt’s paralytic illness was Guillain-Barré syndrome, not poliomyelitis. However, since Roosevelt’s cerebrospinal fluid was not examined, the cause may never be known for certain.

While Roosevelt didn’t commit a crime by hiding the truth of his condition, he also failed to be honest with voters and the public. I can’t say that lying to someone so you’ll benefit from their false perception of you is “authentic.” I don’t know why Chris thinks that this conscious attempt to manipulate voters and support and probably even donations, falls within the realm of “authenticity.” The fact is, being authentic can and does cost us dearly at times. Roosevelt preferred the “sure thing” of pretending to be someone he wasn’t, rather than the highly likely loss if he was honest. We all do - to varying degrees.

We fear authenticity because we fear being rejected for who we really are. If we show who we really are, and that’s not “good enough,” then we have nothing left, nowhere to go, nothing left to salvage (or so we think). The fact is, being authentic gives us the strength to continue to be authentic. If you stand by who you are, you will find a tribe who supports that.

It is more important to me to say, “I’m living in a van and struggling to tell the stories of those who also struggle, than to say, “I’m really rich and successful now,” and to project the image of someone I’m not.

Years ago when I was young, skinny and physically active, I did a lot of rappelling with the ROTC group I belonged to, and later with some friends who also rappelled. I learned that it didn’t matter how pretty the ropes were (blue, green or multicolored,) or how “cool” your gear looked, what you really wanted to know was whether the equipment would do what it was supposed to do - save your life.

As a people we tend to elect the presidential candidate that “looks” the best - Kennedy was more handsome than Nixon, Obama was more hip than John McCain. We forget to look at whether they are truly “authentic” and, like my climbing equipment, able to do what they’re supposed to do - run a country.

Roosevelt had a 20-year long love affair which he hid in addition to his disabililty; Kennedy had numerous love affairs; Nixon lied, cheated and stole, and other presidents - I’m sure, also said and did things to compromise the integrity of the office they pledged to uphold. Those things are commonplace now, but in their time, they were scandalous. So I go back to Chris’ comment that Roosevelt was “Authentic,” and I have to soundly disagree with and denounce his opinion that “lying for a good reason,” falls within the realm of “authentic.” It does not.

Not only does not being as authentic as we are able deprive us of knowing who we are, it denies others from that same discovery. We may lose friends, or family, or be shunned or even kicked out of organizations or groups we’re in for “being real,” but what good is it to belong to something (relationship or otherwise) on the basis of a lie? We saw what happened when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan tried to be something he wasn’t. What he was, was Muslim. What he tried to be, an American soldier, had no place for his deeply held belief system. And 13 people died and more than 30 were wounded over his inauthenticity. Is it worth it to be inauthentic? His case is extreme, but when we pretend to be something we are not, truth will out.

Be who you are. Take the risk, accept the loss, the rejection, whatever comes with being something you think people won’t like. You may be surprised at how people value who you really are, more than who you pretend you are.