At least someone has finally said aloud what we’ve known for years now while observing the complete moral decay of our society; there no longer exists anything called “the truth.”
Whether it be “Truth, Justice, and the American way,” or “The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God,” truth has always been one of the cornerstone foundations of basic American life for centuries. Regardless of when the truth is discovered, we, as a collective people, have always then strived to make the world right based, very simply, on the actual truth. No more.
From here forward we shall recite the following oath before testifying in court; I do solemnly swear to give you my version of the truth, the way I see it and the way that I demand things must have happened. Regardless of any form of evidence to the contrary you place before me, I will stick to my version of the truth because I am entitled to my own belief system of random events creating the only outcome I am comfortable with. So help me God.
No doubt you recall the events last year in Ferguson, Missouri. White police officer Darren Wilson arrived to the scene of a reported strong arm robbery of a convenience store to find Michael Brown walking near the area. A conversation occurred, a confrontation erupted, and Brown, who was not armed, wound up dead at the hands of Officer Wilson’s gun.
That, by the way, is the most objective recounting of what happened that night that you’ll ever hear. And while everything in the previous paragraph is true, it is also incomplete. Once you add in more details, the story, despite its factual and truthful basis using every known method we have at our disposal, starts to offend people. Imagine that; the truth is offensive. How far have we fallen as a society when facts offend? Dear God help us all.
Officer Wilson, you’ll recall, was not indicted after a Grand Jury finally saw all available evidence (as opposed to what we were being told happened by the media) and talked to dozens of alleged witnesses, many of whom, under oath, recanted not only their version of events, but also whether or not they were even there. Later, a Federal Government investigation confirmed the Grand Jury’s decision; there is no evidence that Officer Wilson did anything untoward and the blame for the events that unfolded that night lie squarely at the feet of Michael Brown.
Brown refused to comply with the requests of a lawful and identified officer of the law (a crime in and of itself), resisted arrest, charged at the officer, fought with the officer, grabbed the officer’s gun, and never once got on his knees nor did he put his hands up. And he certainly never yelled “don’t shoot.” These are the facts of the case and the actual events of the evening as compiled by the FBI and witnesses at the scene, including Brown’s friend who was with him at the time and is credited with creating the now infamous and totally bogus “hands up, don’t shoot,” rallying cry. Once faced with a perjury charge, the friend admitted none of that happened.
None of these events mean that black lives don’t matter nor that we don’t have an issue of both racism and police power in America in 2015. It means that Ferguson wasn’t an incident of either, that’s all.
To wit, A Hollywood director has put together a play based on Ferguson using a new, yet wildly popular, genre of drama called “verbatim theater,” in which events depicted on stage are a recreation of exact witness testimony and interviews. There is no “script,” of any kind, only re-enactment. (Sidebar; this sounds to me like an exceptionally easy way to make a buck. Hey, I’ve got an idea, let’s just have actors read things that other people have already said and charge people money to hear them say it. No writing involved at all. Ha! Brilliant). Through testimony taken from grand jury transcripts, the play ends with a witness telling a prosecutor that Wilson was justified in killing Brown. The audience is then supposed to vote on whether Wilson should have been indicted.
As reported by the L.A. times: Veteran actor Philip Casnoff hadn’t read the full script yet when he arrived for the first rehearsal of “Ferguson,” a play chronicling the shooting of Michael Brown by a Missouri police officer..
Casnoff thought he knew what the play…would be about…then he read the script, which tells the story that Brown didn’t have his hands up and that he charged at Wilson.
So what did Mr. Casnoff do? He quit, of course, along with half of the cast.
And here is where the end of days begins. “Everybody’s truth is totally subjective,” former cast member Veralyn Jones told the Times. “When you come to the matter of what really happened, nobody really knows for sure, because everybody has a different take on it. … It just didn’t feel right to me.”
Truth is totally subjective. Two plus two does not necessarily equal four, despite all evidence to the contrary. Forty eight different people confirm a very specific set of details and events yet they did not happen in the way you want them to, so the events therefore did not happen. Because truth is now subjective.
We have been engaging in moral equivalency for decades in this nation as we twist ourselves into pretzels trying to justify the reprehensible behaviors of the reprehensible. The father who stole money from 7-11 to feed his family is to be pitied as a victim of America’s economic system which works against him. The adult who was molested as a child and now molests children is to be pitied as a victim of a vicious cycle of familial abuse and behavior which made him into the monster he is today. The parent who fails to provide supervision resulting in their child’s death is to be pitied as a victim for they have lost a child and therefore “suffered enough.”
At least in those examples, we used to acknowledge that the robbery, abuse and neglect occurred, and only then create some lame ass excuse as to why the person responsible shouldn’t be punished. Now, we just wash away the actual event and create entirely new narratives.
Michael Brown didn’t rob that convenience store, even though there’s clear video evidence that he did, and Officer Wilson had no reason to respond to a call of a robbery that never occurred despite a citizen claiming that it did. Therefore, Wilson shouldn’t have even been in the area, let alone bullying some sweetheart of a teenager into walking on the sidewalk. Once Brown immediately complied with Officer Wilson, which he did, of course, by getting on his knees and, rightfully fearing for his life in the presence of an evil Caucasian officer, plead for his life by pointing out to him verbally that his hands were up and he would really like it if Officer Wilson did not shoot him, the cop murdered him. That’s what happened.
Fifty years ago women who were being pummeled by their husbands at home and who had the courage to come forward and say “I am being abused and it’s not right,” were ushered away being told that she simply fell down the stairs. We worked tirelessly to shine the light of truth on events such as this and reveal the actual events, allowing everyone to be and feel safe. Oh, the sad and twisted irony of how far we have not come. Then as now, events do not happen, they are created in the twisted world of our minds’ needs for comfort and then spewed publicly as though they are the truth. The only difference today is that there is no longer anything as the truth for it is subjective. Make up your own truth and live it; that’s all for now folks, I have a basketball playoff game I have to go suit up for. I’m the starting forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers and I have a job to do.
