Street Smart

When I sat down tonight in front of the keyboard, I had no idea what I was going to write about. I’m sick of politics. Biden and Harris are screwing things up at such a record pace, that it’s hard to stay current. Besides, there’s really no point in overstating the obvious. I wanted to focus on something else this time.

I’ve been collecting quotes for years, so I decided to check there to see if I might find some inspiration. There has never really been any criteria for the quotes I collected (or so I thought), I just put things that struck me into a file. I went through that collection tonight and it was very enlightening when I took time to reflect on what I had saved. It ended up being quite an interesting journey.

It was revealing for me to find that the quotes I’ve collected are fairly narrow in focus, yet come from a pretty eclectic group of sources. When I dug a little a further, I found that three different themes were prominent in the quotes I had collected: truth and its pursuit, disdain for the media, and religious motivation. What was striking was the philosophical/political differences of the individuals quoted regarding the first two topics. Maybe I can make this clear with a few examples.

Regarding truth:

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” Malcom X

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” Winston Churchill

“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” George Orwell

“Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.” Saint Augustine

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Aristotle

Regarding the media:

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and make the guilty look innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcom X

“Do not fear the enemy, for the enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.” Mark Twain

“I have come to believe there is little, if any, honesty in the media, and ethic is a word they are totally unfamiliar with.” Ronald Reagan

Now look back at the people who made the quoted statements. I find the diversity amazing. Not only the individuals making the statements, consider too the time in history that these statements were made. For example, Mark Twain expressed his opinion regarding the media in the late 1800’s. Malcom X did the same in the early 60’s and Ronald Reagan the mid 80’s. That’s quite a time span, but the sentiment was the same. Why? Beyond that, consider the politics of those making the statements. I don’t know much about Mark Twain but I’m pretty sure that Ronald Reagan and Malcom X were polar opposites politically. It’s interesting to me that they were so different philosophically yet shared the same low opinion of the media. The same can be said about the quotes regarding truth that I listed above. Winston Churchill, Malcom X, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Orwell, Aristotle and Saint Augustine in agreement regarding truth! There’s something to be learned here.

Reviewing the collection of quotes reinforced two things that I absolutely know about myself; First, I place high value on the truth. I don’t care (and I don’t always like) where the truth leads, but I want to know it. Second, I have a very guarded view of the media. I don’t always trust the media to lead me to the truth. That’s not to say that I paint all media with the same brush. However, I’ve learned to dig through various media sources in my search for the facts that will lead me to the truth.

I’d like to close with a final quote that I saved. I believe this following quote to be not only profound, but timely. I find it interesting, and believe that all readers should take note of the fact this statement was made in the 1940’s. It is important to consider that in view of all that’s going on today. Do we refuse to learn or do we just ignore the wisdom? There’s a tremendous amount we can learn from these people if we just pay attention.

“If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.” Winston Churchill

Blaine Blackstone is a retired Los Angeles Police Sergeant who enjoys the simpler life in Thompson Falls.