Get To The Truth

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth has not special time of its own. Its hour is now-always and indeed then most truly when it seems unsuitable to actual circumstances.
-Albert Schweitzer.

Ahh…

Things were so much simpler in the old days. Just a few years back, President Clinton lied to us. It was obvious. It was easy to prove. It didn’t mean much in regards to anyone’s daily life, but that made it all the more aggravating.

In today’s world, someone else is lying to us. Or maybe a whole group of people are lying to us. The Iraq cache of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” could have been a lie, or it could have just been “bad intelligence”.

The Iraq insurgency could be a lie by the media, or it could be a truth.

The truth is harder to determine because the liars have safety in numbers. Much like the group of liars in the Nixon administration, those lying will be doing much finger-pointing and God-finding in the years to come.

Now I’m not pointing fingers or naming those doing the lying. It is simply obvious that somewhere, someone (or several someones) is trying to mislead the public.

We need to find the truth. As Schweitzer said, “It’s hour is now.” We need to determine who is feeding us “bad intelligence” and who truly has the longest nose.

Where do we start? We need to find our sources. The internet is a treasure trove where you can discover truths and lies. In our quest for the truth, we need to determine a specific question. Pick any question. Try: Did President Bush mislead us about WMDs in Iraq? Try: “Did President Bush encourage a connection between 9/11 and Iraq?

If you read and listen to pundits, you will get their views. Their views are not necessarily lies. They are also not necessarily the truth either.

Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh, Arianna Huffington, Brit Hume, George Will, Robert Scheer, Tony Blankely, Joe Conason and Molly Ivins are just a few of the pundits out there willing to share their opinions. Listen to what they have to say.

Don’t listen to all of them because there’s too many, but pick a few and listen. Don’t just listen to those you agree with either because that’s cheating. Pick a couple you don’t like and hear what they are saying.

Don’t spend hours and hours doing this. Take fifteen minutes each day and read what two or three have to say.

Remember that Sean Hannity, Will Durst, etc. are not news reporters. They are “commentators”. Sometimes people pretend to be news reporters and speak as if they are authorities providing endless facts, but the truth is that many of these people are simply “entertainers”. They say things they don’t really believe when they are alone with their own thoughts. They want to put on a good show, so they come up with outrageous comments. Many spout the same gibberish over and over until people believe they are hearing true news reporting and thereby are hearing the truth.

What you really should do is search and find the truths. One good place to start is www.c-span.org. Tonight, I’ve included their link on this page. C-Span provides the words from the “horse’s mouths”. You want to look back and hear what they really said? Start here. There are many transcripts, podcasts and streaming video broadcasts available.

Don’t be spun to the right or the left. Listen carefully to what is being said and search for the answers. C-Span doesn’t provide everything. In the weeks and months to come I hope to provide more sources for you to search for answers. www.c-span.org, however, is an excellent place to start.