Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Honesty is the primary chapter within the ebook of knowledge — Thomas Jefferson
You see, Pinocchio, a lie retains rising and rising till it’s as plain because the nostril in your face — The Blue Fairy
Don’t you misinform me! — Unknown, it simply all the time rang in my ears.
Reliable. I don’t need to give the Boy Scouts an excessive amount of credit score. There have been too many grown of us in my life who taught me the worth of reality, of all the time telling the reality, for me to put all of it on scouting.
That phrase, although: Reliable.
I joined the Boy Scouts after I was 12 years previous. Our troop met within the basement of Vernon A.M.E Church in Tulsa, Okla. That was my childhood church, the one — as I’ve shared earlier than — whose basis was the one construction that survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Bloodbath. The church the place I used to be often “kicked out” of First Girl Mrs. Fannie E. Hill’s Sunday College class for asking too many questions. (Sure, that child grew to become this journalist, although that’s an entire ‘nother column). (One other apart, as a toddler in Plains, Ga., Mrs. Hill’s neighbors included the Carters, one among whom grew to become President. Perhaps probably the most reliable president ever.)
Tollie T. Moore was our troop chief. He was a church deacon (or trustee, I can’t recall) and simply a type of grown of us who spoke reality into me. One of many myriad women and men who stepped within the hole after my father died the yr earlier than I joined the troop.
Who helped my mom, all of the sudden a single mother with two boys.
Who then helped form, mildew, and construct us and so many different youngsters in our nonetheless segregated world.
Who infused us with reality.
They have been stymied in an age when the racist strictures of Jim Crow didn’t permit them to be absolutely what they have been gifted to be, in order that they poured these items into us. Poured their beliefs into us.
Amongst them: Reliable.
It’s the primary of the 12 ideas of the Boy Scout Regulation and is adopted by: Loyal. Useful. Pleasant Courteous. Sort. Obedient. Cheerful. Thrifty. Courageous. Clear. Reverent.
Whew, that’s lots. Actually, for a 12-year-old.
Proper now, although — in these essential waning days — it’s the reliable for me.
Dictionaries usually outline the phrase as “telling the reality and being dependable.”
These matter for me. Whether or not you need to be my buddy, my enterprise associate, or something in my life.
Particularly if you wish to be my president.
Reliable issues. Reality issues.
At the very least to me.
Right here’s my reality: I’ve lied. Now most of them have been “small” lies, if there could be such a factor. “White” lies, they’re referred to as (Why are the small ones “white”? Sorry, an entire ‘nother column. #toomanyquestions)
There’ve been some doozies, too, for which I needed to fall on my knees and ask forgiveness.
Someplace in-between, there’s been the not fairly or complete reality. Generally, these helped me survive a selected second or circumstance — and I nonetheless fell on my knees.
Three issues can’t be lengthy hidden: the solar, the moon, and the reality – Buddha
Donald Trump doesn’t even attempt anymore to cover his lies. He spews them as simply as respiratory and believes we’ll all inhale. As his supporters do.
His listing of lies is just too lengthy to adequately listing right here, although at the least two bear mentioning: The “steal”, a lie; “They’re consuming the canines and cats,” a hateful lie that, as I’ve beforehand famous, is disrupting peaceable communities and placing human lives in danger.
Most lately, there’s his tsunami of lies about FEMA and its heroic reduction efforts within the wake of Helene and in anticipation of Milton. Lies that diminish the depth of the devastation endured by People. Lies that require debunking by individuals whose priorities are saving and restoring lives.
Reality issues. To me.
I requested a Trump-supporting buddy (sure, I’ve them) if reality issues to them. If Trump’s daring and impertinent lies matter.
His response was a predictable deflection: Does anyone fact-check her?!
Her, in fact, is VP Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent. Reply: Sure, she’s fact-checked and sometimes falls wanting the entire reality, too.
By a lie, a person … annihilates his dignity as a person. — Immanuel Kant (18th-century German thinker)
It might — or could not — be Trump’s intention to desensitize us to reality. To its worth. To the nobleness of reliable. To kill reality.
We should not permit that to occur. We should not permit reality to be dismissed or devalued. We should not permit it to die.
Reality ought to be a precept that’s by no means ripped from our grip. By no means doused inside us. Least of all by somebody, anybody who needs to guide us.
I imagine that unarmed reality and unconditional love may have the ultimate phrase in actuality – Rev. Martin Luther King
Unarmed reality. God, I hope so.
Roy Johnson is a columnist for al.com.
