One phrase that has been floating for quite some time is: “Fair and Balanced.” I think the idea behind these words was a plea to be fair. Which is commendable. But in a time when truth is up for grabs I think to put down this term beside all sorts of issues is not fair or balanced.
When Lyndon Johnson was a young man looking for a job he interviewed about a teaching position in a high school in Texas. The officials asked : “Tell me what you believe about evolution?” Mr. Johnson said, “I can teach it either way.”
Fair and Balanced Won't Go Away
And after all these years we are still struggling with this issue. We cannot just take any prescribed medicine or home remedies when we are ailing. Horse pills do not cure covid. Many of us check the labels on food before we buy them. Protein, fat, carbohydrates. How many grams. How much should we eat. Or should we eat it at all. We’re having a lot of discussion—well, maybe not real discussion, in public schools about what is fair and balanced. People are checking up on teachers to see if what they say is fair and balanced. School and public libraries are being monitored to make sure that we have no books on our shelves that will offend or make our children upset.
Truth about America’s incarcerating Japanese citizens in the Second War War is now suspect by many. What about the other side? Truth about our dark history with slavery. Must our children think that back that everything was fair when history says no. Truth that demonizes Republicans or Democrats. Monsters or angels. Pick your side. Dealing explosive issues like sex. What should be taught and what should not. What about the Holocaust? Should children know the truth about that terrible time or should we just be silent and ignore the dark pages of history. Physicians should not spare patients when they have cancer or other maladies. We have to come down on what is the best treatment which sometimes will make us very ill. I don’t want to have an operation but my Doctor tells me this is necessary. Maybe we get a second opinion but if we are really sick fair and balanced goes out the door.
Is the Earth Flat?
Remember those that were sure the earth was flat. Remember those that were tortured and burned at the stake or simply lost their jobs because they were not Catholics or Protestants or atheists or come from a strange land. This happened in America too.
Lloyd Douglas, the popular author in the fifties tells of a conversation with a friend who taught the violin. The old man had a lot of wisdom. Douglas asked him one day, “Well, what’s the good news today?” The old music teacher went over to a tuning fork that was suspended by a cord and struck it with a mallet. “That,” he said, “is the good news for today. That, my friend is an “A”. It was an “A” all yesterday. It will be an “A” all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years. The soprano upstairs warbles off-key, the tenor next door flats his high notes, and the piano across the hall is out of tune. Noise all around me, noise: but that, my friend is an “A!”
We Cannot Scrap the Ten Commandments
There are some thing right or wrong. We still have the Ten Commandments. Truth is like that “A”. It has been and it will always be. We cannot believe or teach it either way. Jesus said:’You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.” There are no alternative truths or facts. We cannot pick and choose.
Flannery O’Connor said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” In this very stormy time, maybe oddness is what we all need.
--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com
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