McMusing: On Lies & Truths
What I said four years ago is still true.
Often during my 40+ years of teaching, I went home at the end of the day and thought, “Was anyone listening?” Well, those who had ears to hear did listen. Those who do not want to hear anything that doesn’t align with what they already believe did not. It is that simple. Sometimes (rarely) they returned later and said, “You know what you said about [fill in the blank]? You were right.” Such courage to come to me and say that!
Four Years Later
This piece was originally posted on Facebook on May 28, 2021—It got a whopping 20 likes and 5 comments. The first paragraph distinguishes between talking about politics and talking about principles. Now I understand when people say not to talk about politics it is actually a problem with how uncomfortable cognitive dissonance feels when principles and the desire for power conflict with each other.)
I rarely post about politics—pretty sure no one ever changed a political opinion on Facebook. So, this may appear political, but I hope it feels more about principles.
When I was raising my children, I occasionally knew they did something and I would ask them, "Did you do this?" It was wrong of me to ask that. Children will lie (as adults will) when they feel trapped. All the pleas of "tell me the truth and this will go better for you" should not be applied when you already know the truth. Just present the evidence you already have and then work on what to do about it. It is a rare child or adult who is not drawn to lying when confronted--unless there is a VERY good relationship of trust (which children are still working on and many adults have learned doesn't always work out well.)
There are reasons why trials require people to tell the truth under threat of perjury. I am personally glad I never had to testify. How stressful. And I rarely catch myself feeling so unsafe that the urge to lie is present. I was an evasive but honest adult. I gotta be honest here (pun intended) there were some situations where I was NEVER going to vote for an investigation. What human does that? Well, there are humans who do that . . . those who have nothing to hide.
[I want to insert here that it is valid for people not to tell the truth when it puts them in danger. That is something that is becoming increasingly true for demographics that have not always been fearful.]
So, I say, it is completely ludicrous for the very people who would be investigated concerning Jan. 6 to be the same ones who vote as to whether there should be an investigation. And to say it is a political witch hunt is very likely true, but that doesn't matter if you are not afraid of what will be said (or what you will have to say) under oath. Yes, yes, truth can be twisted and people can lie under oath, but that has never caused us to throw out our courts of law.
The truth is that humans need monitoring. Unwatched power is never a good idea. Is the plan flawed? Yes. Is it important? Well, when the mother and partner of the police officer who died show up and beg for an investigation? Yes.
As a teacher, I always understood that the one who defended themselves the loudest and protested being "investigated" probably had something to hide. I wanted to help them learn to face their own truth and work through the problem. So they could grow up and be willing to do the same.
Four years later, the importance of truth has been obliterated by half-truths, lies, and misinformation. When we take the lazy route of saying, “Who can even know the truth?” we will lose our democracy. Truth can be interpreted in different ways but it doesn’t change the truth. Saying something is true doesn’t mean it is true no matter how many times it is repeated.
Far be it from me to say that it is easy to discern truth any longer—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to try. The truth that we saw with our own eyes on January 6th is being rewritten and four years ago I watched that process begin. I was not wrong about what was happening though I had no idea how far from our principles we—as a nation—would stray.