Valid Hope Demands Truth

Given the low number of viewers and lack of comments to my run-up to the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War series, I would have to say this: Those who feel as I do are not interested in reading the painful mirror image of their own thoughts and feelings. And those on the pro-war right are too busy listening and watching their own version of ‘the way things are.’ That leaves the vast middle ground, the majority who don’t want to read more dire predictions, or a litany of what is wrong with America. Frank Rich addresses the nation’s lack of interest in the five year Iraq occupation in his New York Times op-ed piece “The Petraeus-Crocker Show Gets the Hook.”

In many ways, I can understand how they feel. Who can they believe? What can they trust? The foundations of the American way of life are crumbling beneath their feet. Some turn to religion, requiring only blind faith… at least here they can find comfort; secure in a community of like-minded believers. Hope is to be found in “The Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins.” Hope lays in the afterlife for the chosen few.

Others live for the moment, feeling the tenuousness of our existence on this planet… terrorist attacks, climate change, mall and school mass killings, home invasions, and road rage. Anything can happen, and does. These are good people, caring people. But feeling powerless to change ‘the way it is,’ they cling to what they know, family, work, and a vast variety of distractions. Busy people do not have time to stop, and look, and think about the realities beyond their front door or their workplace… so they keep busy. They don’t realize that the realities that seem so far away will eventually come knocking on their door.

While it may be more comfortable to deny or avoid what is happening, the final payment will come due nonetheless. It is only through seeing truth for what it is, in all of its ugliness and promise that we can bring about positive action and results. To base our hopes on words of deception, misinformation, misconceptions, and uncritical optimism, can only result in a false hope, akin to wishing upon a star or hoping to win a million dollar Lotto. Climate change is already here, there is no victory in a war based on lies, availability of fossil fuel is on the downside and its continued use will only hasten the inevitable. The world needs to be viewed with clarity in order to find real solutions. We must seek and demand truth… refuse to listen to profit making and politically motivated gibberish. Then we can take action, and not just hope for the best. But I will be the first to admit, truth is not easy to find these days.

... P. L. Morningstar
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