THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602160163
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
For the sake of discussion, let's consider what people mean when they say they want to hear the ``truth.''
Often, they mean they want to hear something that reinforces their biases or props up a cause in which they have a great personal stake.
For instance, when a guy comes stumbling home in the wee hours of the morning reeking of tequila and stale brewsky, his significant other is not likely to be amused or take too seriously the claim that he was waylaid by a tribe of thirsty aboriginal midgets who were conducting fertility rites honoring the gods of malt and barley.
Now the guy might be stretching the facts a tad, but the significant other may choose to disregard his entire story because of one or two teensy-weensy discrepancies.
I mean, who is she to dispute the assertion that there is a tribe of aboriginal midgets who call Pungo their home and who conduct fertility rites each fall after the malt and barley harvest?
Then we have national talk show windbags like Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy expounding at great length on ``the truth'' about Hillary and Bill Clinton and ``the truth'' about welfare moms and the ``truth'' about abortion or gun control or flat taxes or whatever the hot topic of the moment is.
These two yahoos virtually break both arms patting themselves on the back for being the sole purveyors of unbiased truth about the workings of government, politics, finance and military affairs.
While in the throes of self-congratulatory ecstasy, they have been known to sound like Muhammad Ali who, after ``whupping'' some stiff in the ring, delighted in telling the world he was ``the greatest.''
Folks by the thousands call Limbaugh and Liddy each day to tell them what a wonderful job they're doing in telling the ``truth'' about the ``hated'' Clintons and those ``tax and spend'' Democrats.
Hard to beat for sheer gall - perhaps even depravity - is Liddy's claim that the average citizen has an absolute right to shoot a federal agent or any other law enforcement officer who dares to come uninvited to their door in the course of doing his or her duty.
In fact, he recommends that for real efficiency, said officers should be shot in the head at close range.
This comes from a guy who was once an FBI agent, but subsequently fell from grace because he spent time in prison for his involvement in the 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
And Limbaugh is a former disc jockey who was a failed flack for the Kansas City Royals. So much for his credentials.
The truth is, the ``truth'' often isn't what it seems.
Sometimes it's too complicated to understand at one sitting. Often it's something no one - no matter how smart or where they stand on the political or social spectrum - wants to hear.
Too often the ``truth'' emerges in dribs and drabs over a period of time - decades, even centuries.
Look how long it has taken for the facts to emerge on the sordid White House tenure of John F. Kennedy, replete with accounts of his sexual escapades and his dealings with the American underworld. Camelot, it turns out, was just a pipe dream.
The ``truth,'' more often than not, is painful. It can reinforce, but it also can tear down that which we hold most dear. by CNB