People Hear What They Lisen For

        Barron Spotlighters Community Theater recently gave a performance of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.  The setting is Maycomb, Alabama in 1935.  The play dramatizes the racial inequalities of the time.  A black man is tried and convicted for the rape of a white woman. The black man is not only innocent, but there has been no sexual involvement with his accuser. 

        The black minister states that he has never seen a jury rule for a black man.  Deep South at that time was referred to as the Bible belt.  It also was the heart of the Democratic Party.  

        I played the role of Judge Taylor.  I had one line that seems to be as true today as it was when Harper Lee wrote it.  “People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for.”  This is how the jury could convict an innocent black man.  It is also true of politics today. 

Republicans hear what supports their agenda.  Democrats hear what supports their agenda.  Conservatives hear what supports their views, and liberals hear what supports their views.  The media reports the events that support their agenda. 

If something fits a specific agenda, few people seem to care if it is true.  They don’t like to let facts get in the way.  Senator Harry Reid twice stood on the floor of the Senate and stated that presidential candidate Mitt Romney had not paid his taxes.  Reid knew it was a lie at the time, but because he made the statement on the Senate floor, he is protected from any criminal or civil suits.  This is not right.  I think he should be subject to perjury charges at the very least.  When Reid was recently asked if he regretted the lie, he responded, “He lost didn’t he?”  The lie supported Reid’s agenda.

Sarah Palin has often been quoted as saying; “I can see Russia from my porch.”  This was actually a Tina Fey line from a Saturday Night Live skit.  People that did not support Palin as a politician loved to use the line.  They did not like to let the truth get in the way. 

The problem is that finding the truth and exposing lies takes a lot of work and time.  Most people don’t have the time or interest.  This should be the job of the media, but they clearly are not doing the job.  I spent over two years trying to find one piece of documented evidence that had not been refuted showing man-made carbon emissions were causing global warming.  I was unsuccessful, but people still use the B.S. claim that 97% of all scientists agree that man-made carbon emissions are causing global warming.   

Some of these flagrant lies, promoted for political reasons, would be funny except for a large uninformed, gullible, and apathetic public that believe them.  Sometimes when I watch political ads for Progresives, they sound so conservative that I would vote for them if I didn’t know better.  If their liberal ideas are so good, why do they try to sound like conservatives?  I know the answer.  They know their faithful followers will vote for them regardless.  They now try to deceive enough uninformed independents in order to get elected. 

How do we get politicians to be truthful and how do we get the media to actually report the facts?  I wish I had some easy answers.  All we can do is keep spreading the word to get better elected representatives, and support news sources that report the facts accurately.  We must somehow remove the political elite from power.