Looking through a log or a speck?

Whines & Roses


 “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” — Luke 6:42

The above Bible verse figured prominently in my thoughts last week, both literally and figuratively.

First, because a routine eye appointment led to a near miraculous improvement of my eyesight last week and it is amazing to be able to see the physical world clearly after three years of obscured vision!

Second, because the partisan rancor that has divided our nation for the past four years has devolved in so many cases to finger pointing at opposite “tribes.” Who has the log and who, the speck?

How can we call the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol “domestic terrorists” but not the people who burned down a police precinct in Minneapolis? Protesting for social justice is different than attacking the seat of government to try to overturn a Constitutional process, right?

Violence? Never justified.

Then there’s the continued talk about a rigged election — what many call the “Big Lie.”

Source after source and court after court finds no credible evidence of anything sufficient to overturn a 7 million vote majority and at this point, people wouldn’t even believe Donald Trump if he admitted he made it all up.

The vote machine company Dominion was successful last week in getting another retraction of unfounded allegations of vote rigging. Ask yourself, if a news outlet actually had evidence to prove their claims why would they retract? You can’t be sued for reporting facts that are demonstrably true.

Someone asked me last week why these conspiracy peddlers aren’t thrown in jail if they’re deliberately and falsely causing damage to our Democracy. Well, for the same reason I am not jailed for expressing my opinions. But we’ve crossed a line where much of our populace doesn’t understand the difference between what they believe and what can be proven — or they don’t care.

Why is it okay for Twitter to take down Donald Trump’s account or ban him from Facebook? How come Amazon can refuse to host Parler? These companies, some argue, are too powerful and are infringing on the president’s free speech.

Um, no. First of all, these are private companies and as our capitalist cheerleaders have so often pointed out, the market place will regulate itself — eventually. Like, when there’s a possibility of being held culpable for incitement of an insurrection, or when large brands begin to shun someone because their customers are threatening not to do business with them if they don’t.

On the premise that Twitter, Facebook and Amazon are too powerful, I will wholeheartedly agree. I’ve been writing this for years.

We are in the predicament we are in precisely because these companies have gained control of the public square by manipulating the algorithms that serve people more and more of what they already believe. They have destroyed any shared sense of reality. They have cornered the market on so much of the information sphere that actual news organizations — those making an attempt at fair and objective reporting — are barely surviving. Yet any attempt to reign in tech or police themselves is seen as censorship. Now that’s a tough nut to crack!

What offends you more? People painting “Black Lives Matter” on city streets or erecting a noose on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol as a throng shouts “Hang Mike Pence”?

Is it lost on anyone that the very police the Right purports to support were the targets of violence more savage than burning a building? Now throw in the fact some of the rioters ARE police?!

Lots of pundits are talking about examining the side you find yourself on. Are you standing on the side of a horned hat-wearing Holocaust denier carrying a spear with a U.S. flag attached? If it’s not okay to judge you by the political company you keep, why assume all Democrats have a socialist agenda?

There are a whole bunch of logs obscuring our vision right now. But one thing President Trump said last week is true: We are “one American people.”

We need to start acting like it.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.