Please just give us the facts, ma’am
Last Sunday when I came in from my early morning chores, my cereal bowl was not on the counter where it usually is on Sunday mornings. (We do a few things on Saturday evening to facilitate getting ready for church on Sunday. Filling cereal bowls is one of those Saturday evening preps.) Assuming Ruth had forgotten the night before, I proceeded to pour my cereal.
As I placed the bowl on the table, Ruth mentioned that she had already fixed my cereal. After quickly scanning the kitchen counters, I suggested she was mistaken. An “I did-you did not” dispute ensued. Later, when I opened the refrigerator, there sat the bowl of cereal, placed in the frig to preserve the blueberries she had sprinkled on top. She simply forgot that she had put my bowl in the frig. I donned a sheepish grin (the one I keep reserved for such embarrassing moments) and we,ot to apologize. Arguing without knowing all the facts is most often a losing proposition. Whether it is a dispute about breakfast cereal or something more important, true facts are handy tools to have at one’s disposal. Please consider a couple of examples, not so much about arguments, but about the general need for reliable facts.
I do not know how many hummingbirds we have bivouacked on our property, but I have seen six at the feeder at once, so I estimate that there must be at least a dozen of these little daredevils residing close by. They all know exactly where the feeder is located undoubtedly to within a fraction of an inch. This is important info for any craft that zooms in at sixty miles an hour born by wings that beat as fast as seventy times a second. Even though they weigh only a tenth of an ounce, these wizards of the airways travel at freeway speeds and yet stop on a dime, lighting on the feeder perch with the touch of a feather. They go from sixty to zero in a nanosecond. With that kind of acrobatics, they need to know perinate facts-like the precise location of the perch so they never miss a landing.
Aside from our main population of chickens that we keep in a fenced area, for aesthetic reasons, we free range a beautiful Brahma rooster and two lovely Brahma hens. As soon as the rooster learned where the coop door was, where to find food, how to get water at the bird feeder across the yard, and how to avoid a car coming down the driveway, we acquired the two hens. Soon, they followed the rooster around and learned this same set of important facts so they, too, would have food, shelter, and safety. Because these three Brahma chickens have learned a few simple facts, they lead happy, healthy lives.
Facts are important to us, too. Much information is available to us, but we face difficult challenges when it comes to separating fact from fiction. The basics of political truth are much like the basics of religious truth. For instance, for Christians, the Bible holds the facts, but to be sure we are pleasing God, we must be sure we understand and apply Biblical facts correctly.
Similarly, in politics, the Constitution should guide us, but for that to happen, we must understand it. Aside from Constitutional basics, many important political decisions require a crystal-clear observation and understanding of current affairs. To successfully determine who should govern and how, we must separate fact from fiction regarding a vast number of issues.
This process takes time and energy. Unfortunately, much of the media-our accustomed source of facts and clarity-has become biased and deceitful, therefore, unreliable. The first amendment to our constitution guarantees freedom of speech, but it does not guarantee that the speech we hear is factual. In politics, falsehood has many minions. Our mission (difficult, but not quite impossible) is to consider their political assertions and our nation’s current affairs carefully so we can ascertain the truth back the right people. To vote successfully, selfish aims, political parties, bias, political correctness and other superficialities need to be cast aside in favor of plain old-fashioned, unvarnished truth .
DeWitt Clinton is a resident of Dunbar.