LETTER: It’s always important to seek the truth

To the editor:

Free speech is not free. Today’s world is surrounded by propaganda.

Right now in Russia, most people deny that their country is responsible for destruction and loss of life in Ukraine. Friends and relatives tell them what is happening, but they only believe the propaganda messages from Vladimir Putin. They are the only messages they are allowed to hear.

Propaganda to sway public opinion is also extensive in the United States. On television, radio and social media, exaggerated and bogus talking points are repeated to promote messages that aren’t true: that Joe Biden is not president because of “voter fraud” in 2020, that we can’t trust our elections in 2022, that elementary schools are being taught critical race theory to “indoctrinate” our children.

It is a known fact that over 60 courts found no voter fraud in the 2020 election, yet the false rumors persist. It is also common knowledge that teachers teach about diversity to educate children that all people are not the same, that people are born with different skin colors, different histories, different abilities and disabilities. Educating children on factual human history at appropriate grade levels is not some form of indoctrination. Trying to hide our children from the truth is.

We should know that repeating a lie doesn’t make it the truth. Yet, it does make it more difficult for many to believe anything else. When a lie goes viral, the correction rarely reaches nearly as many people.

We proudly boast of our free speech rights in America, but there is a price. It is left up to us, as citizens of our democracy, to be “smart shoppers,” to check and verify the sources, and determine if what we are hearing is really the truth or not.

Former President Barack Obama recently expressed how prone we are to influences from lies and conspiracy theories, and that the main reason for our weakening democracy is the conflicting information that constantly bombards us, much from totally anonymous sources, some un-American, some dangerous.

Like jurors in a court of law, our most important job as citizens of this nation is to seek the truth. It is not easy these days with all the amplified media. Ultimately, we have to decide what is the truth and what is fake. Fortunately, here in America, we still have the ability to make that choice. The people of Russia don’t. We need to remember that.

Steve Parks, Bowler