On one of the local television channels, every looted business got airtime. It’s easy to see where the station’s sympathies lie.
On Twitter, policemen unload bricks and stack them beside the street. Is the video real or staged?
How do we know what’s true?
Without widespread testing, do we know how many people have died from COVID-19?
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, are the protests violent or peaceful?
We can’t deny that looting happened, but we can question who looted, and why. We can’t ignore the violence, but we can ask questions. Who started it? Why? We see protestors and journalists attacked. We see drivers running down marchers, and in one video, a hero saving a girl’s life.
Rioters throw bricks. Where did the bricks come from? Did protestors carry backpacks full?
You can tell each news station’s slant by the focus of their coverage, looters on one side, peaceful marchers on the other. Watch enough footage on as many channels as possible, and there seem to be many more people looking for justice than there are those looking for trouble.
It’s hard work looking for truth. We’re not going to find it watching just one channel on television, reading just one newspaper.
And for goodness sake, don’t look to the president for truth. He has been burying the facts since he announced his campaign. He even lies about his lies. He tells a big one today, on camera. Tomorrow he’ll say to the same camera, “I didn’t say that.”
As he plays at being king, blood stains his hands.
How many lives could have been saved if he’d acknowledged the truth about SARS-CoV2?
Testing and tracing saved lives in South Korea. What if we had accepted the offer of tests from WHO? Did the president choose potential profits for American companies over American lives?
What if we had pumped trillions into the pockets of average Americans so they could pay rent and make mortgage payments instead of bailing out companies who have grown fat on low-interest-rate loans?
What good does it do us if billionaires get richer?
Ask these questions, and you get pat answers. The answers don’t tell you much except to confirm where the speaker gets his or her news.
How can we fix anything in this country if we don’t sit down at the table to talk? And how can we have a conversation if each side begins with its own set of facts?
My mama used to say, “The truth will stand when the world’s on fire.”
I’m sifting through the ashes left by this administration. I know the truth is here somewhere, waiting to be uncovered.
