Hunger Pains

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​Is anyone else hungry?

The chaos of the world seems to lower my blood sugar and stimulate my appetite.

I get so hungry for the truth.

We can no longer ask the questions that would lead to conversations that help us grow in understanding because we are trapped by “political correctness.”  Labeled as intolerant, we can lose our jobs, relationships or social standing.

Things are happening out in the world, big things, dangerous things like Coronavirus, war in Syria, the integrity of our democracy, but we get “spin” instead of truth.   I think they once called that propaganda.

Tell the truth at work, and you will find yourself on the discard pile of “disgruntled” employees.  It doesn’t matter if you are a parking lot valet, a former CEO of the largest corporation in the world or a decorated military genius.  Your entire career can be dismantled by trying to speak the truth to power.

Doctors can no longer tell the truth to patients without being accused of some new form of “shaming.”

We live in a litigious society.  In response, various programs pop up from time-to-time that attempt to train us to walk the tightrope that is “risk management.”  I once attended a required training on “the blameless apology.”  How is it an apology if someone does not accept responsibility? I wondered.  But, of course, I couldn’t ask that question.  As one of my graduate school instructors once said, “When walking a tightrope, you are dead no matter which side you fall from.”

When I was young, there was an old black and white TV show called Dragnet . The show continues to play in re-runs and re-makes.  Primitive by today’s television production standards, the original TV series was digestible even for children.  The show followed two Los Angeles police detectives led by Sergeant Joe Friday. 

The show’s opening featured music and then a voice that said: ”Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true.  Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”  When being interviewed by the police, witnesses would often digress and ramble on.  Sergeant Friday was famous for saying, “Just the facts, ma’am.”  The detectives were extremely respectful as they uncovered the truth.

I compare those images to the ones that flood the eyes of children today.  And the things they hear! 
There is an apology to be made, and not a blameless one.

Some folks make fun of those old 1950s TV programs saying that they weren’t realistic enough.  The shows portrayed life too simply.  Everyone was a goody two-shoes.  What an irony. We are now flooded with gory “realism,” and still we are hungry for the truth.

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