TIME TO HUNT TRUTH FOR THE GOOD OF ALL
A TRUTHFUL foundation is fundamental to restore the vision.
If you have been following this segment each week – you have detected just how passionate I am about this city, our country and the next generation. Passionate to the extent that I am concerned about what is unfolding across our country and how our nation is governed.
In some respect, I feel our national house is falling apart.
Our political landscape has turned into a soap opera that is divisive and focused on negativity. We deserve better than this, we deserve a proactive, forward thinking approach, and we definitely deserve the truth.
Each of us has the freedom, the responsibility and the duty to investigate truth for ourselves. But how can we fairly and fully investigate reality when we’re completely immersed in the incessant and unending media cycle, when we’re bombarded with disconnected facts and opinion?
The media and its views dominate our culture, and in large part, form our individual and collective consciousness 24 hours a day. From news channels, commercials, TV episodes, magazines, newspapers, billboards, Facebook, YouTube, the media never sleeps. All forms of media constantly surrounds us, moulding how we perceive our world and key figures, whether consciously or unconsciously – and making the independent investigation of truth both easier than it used to be, and harder than ever. For me, I put the information I receive from most media in the category of “the knowledge of peering through the eyes of another”. I must not allow that view to cloud my consciousness or make a decision about it without my own independent investigation of that truth. Above all, I must think for myself.
But that isn’t easy. In most cultures today, we cannot avoid the digital media platforms. And we certainly can’t avoid interacting with other people. So we will all inevitably encounter a multitude of opinions, which will give us the opportunity to use our own judgment, investigating those opinions and deciding independently whether or not we accept them. This calls for good judgment, clear thinking and an open mind.
Contemporary journalism, when focused on equity and justice, can reach remarkable heights of effectiveness and service to humanity. But the echo chamber of social media, which often overemphasises and exaggerates the importance of some stories while ignoring other important ones, has now led to a great deal of confusion and misinformation, some of it created to intentionally mislead us. So, as we contemplate what is needed for our country, and the future generations, for me it is getting back to basics and identifying those individuals who display genuine values of goodness and ethics, someone who is transparent, has vision and the ability to overcome challenges during difficult economic times, the courage to make tough choices.
With such a major decision in our hands, it is critical that each of us independently investigate the truth and the values that are represented as the blueprint for the prosperity of our nation, to leave a longlasting legacy for the future wellbeing of the community.