Let’s talk about truth and lies. We’ll start with lies. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since ghoul-laureate Alex Jones went on trial for his claim that the murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary never took place. On December 14, 2012, 20 children and six staff members were killed by a shooter who began the day killing his mother with one of the guns she’d bought for him. He ended the day killing himself.
Sandy Hook families took Jones to court after nearly a decade of continued harassment and torture by Jones’s radio listeners and were awarded over $1.4 billion for his blasphemous rants about the rampage. Along with Jones’s claim that the killings never took place, he maintained the whole thing was staged, and those grieving, sobbing, crippled-with sadness parents and family members were “crisis actors.”
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene swooped in to defend Jones, “… all he did was speak words.” She went on, “he was not the one who pulled the trigger.” Of course, she invoked the First Amendment, the right to free speech.
This from the woman who filed a Capitol Police Report for a joke Jimmy Kimmel made about her.
Greene’s logic—they’re just words—is like saying that just because you legally own a gun (Second Amendment, the right to bear arms), you can open fire at the local Costco. You can’t. And just because you own a mouth that is capable of uttering words doesn’t mean you can say anything whenever and wherever you want. Like guns that should be kept in a locked safe, some thoughts should stay securely within the confines of one’s mind.
Still, Greene is right on a couple of levels. He didn’t pull a trigger, as if killing a person’s body is the only real crime, and he just spoke words. But his words were not remotely attached to reality, making them lies. And lies, like guns, kill, just in a different manner. Lies kill respect. Lies kill friendships. Lies kill marriages. And when they’re big and bad enough, lies kill souls.
Alex Jones told, capitalized on, and made millions on his lies. We tell our children from the get-go to not lie. Lies are selfish. Lies confuse and mess things up. Lies lead people down the wrong path like a GPS gone haywire.
My father often said, “Your word is the one thing you give and keep at the same time in equal measure.”
When I was in high school my dad loaned a friend a large sum of money. Frank came over one Sunday night to retrieve the check and agree on repayment terms. I happened to be within earshot and overheard a conversation that seared through me. Frank thanked my dad and invited him to meet at the bank the next morning—they could draw up papers and have them notarized. My dad declined Frank’s offer, saying “If your word’s no good, your signature’s no good. Besides, I’ve got cows to milk.” They shook hands and that was that. Frank paid my dad back in full, ahead of time.
Frank and my dad were friends until their deaths. Imagine how things would have played out were truth and honor not their code.
Words have consequences. Choose yours carefully.
– Dorothy
