Truth on display
Words matter and so does their meaning. The funny thing is that societies have a history of changing the meanings of words and phrases over time; usually in order to bolster public favor of certain agendas or ideas. Regardless of the definitions of the words, the underlying truths revealed by them never change; we just have to rephase the questions.
“That is my truth”, is a phrase believed to have its origin in 1955 by a member of the American Friends Service Committee. The expression was meant to suggest that one’s life experience is subjective. In other words, when we are speaking with a person, we cannot begin to know what is in the person’s head so we can’t understand everything the person has experienced concerning the topic being discussed. Which is all true. In 2023, when the words “my truth” are said, it is as a rebuttal in the hope that the discussion will be dropped and they will be allowed to live their life “authentically” or the way they so choose regardless of what is true. With the latter, that is called, “living a lie”.
In America and much of the world, every adult citizen can choose to live the way they see fit and every human is born with the power of freewill. We can and should value everyone’s perspective, that is how we learn, but we do have the freedom to do this without necessarily honoring their view. When we are wrong in our thinking our value as a person is not lessoned and when we are open to learning the truth, our value soars.
Even before 1955, all children were taught…well almost all them, that every truth is universal and designed by our Creator. If you decided to dye your hair, lime green and someone told you or even inferred that it was not a natural color for human hair, you would have said, “Personally, I like the color.” not “It’s my truth”. A truth is true for everyone, anything else, is an opinion. “Broccoli tastes nasty” is an opinion not a truth, some people like the taste of broccoli. “Lime green hair is not a natural color of human hair.”, is a truth not an opinion, no one has ever been born with lime green hair. “The sun rises in the morning” is a truth not an opinion. Pretty clear?? Not to some.
Why does identifying the truth matter?
No one has the power to elevate an opinion to the level of a truth. If that were the case, every court trial would end with a not guilty verdict. Something that is true is true for everyone and has always been true for everyone. By giving people, the authority to change what is true or false leads people to believe they are more powerful than they really are. That perceived power can lead the youth, the unknowledgeable, and the uninformed to act in a manner not conducive to the truth. The outcomes that follow will be negative in nature and will affect everyone connected with that individual.
No one should knowingly lead people away from the truth. That is why we send our children to school; they are supposed to be a repository of truth. Society depends on people following the truth. That is why the laws of any society should be crafted based on the truth. “It is wrong to allow people to kill others.”; this is a universal societal law and a widely held moral and ethical value. When laws are based on a lie, it is unjust to all, not just to those who dislike it based on their personal values and emotions. That is why, since the erroneous ruling of Roe v. Wade, the United States has been deeply divided. Our Constitution, which our Republic was founded upon, grants the citizens three inalienable rights: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Every law in the nation must conform to the Constitution. When our government sanctions, allows, or uses taxes to pay for an abortion of a healthy infant, for no other reason than the parents do not want to have a child, that is an unjust law by every standard of measurement. No one should have the liberty to say who lives and who dies.
When the people are forced to honor any unjust law, it brings into question the justness of every law, chiseling away at the element of trust. Without trust there is dissent within the ranks causing separation and discord. Eventually, it leads to chaos, unless quickly made right.
We have had other unjust laws, but they were overturned rather quickly, and the people were told it should have never been done. The abortion debate is the first of such laws that stood for so long. During that time, many, many more unjust laws have been passed, all eroding the truth from our schools and homes. We must regain civility and honesty in this Country or soon, America will no longer be, the land of the free and the home of the brave.
If this is my last post, I want all to know, there was only one purpose for all that I have written; to have made a positive difference in the lives of others.
Anthony “Tony” Boquet, the author of “The Bloodline of Wisdom, The Awakening of a Modern Solutionary” and the soon to be released “The Power of the Wisdom of Three”