WILL THAULT: A pony’s tale

Two boys with different outlooks on life were each asked to go into separate rooms for a big surprise. The first boy walked into his room and saw, standing in an otherwise empty space, a little pony completely decked out with a brand new saddle and riding gear. Instead of running up to ride the pony, he began carefully searching every nook and cranny of the room. When asked what he was looking for, the boy complained, “If there’s a pony in this room, there must be a pile of horse manure around here somewhere.”

The second boy was ushered into another room that was altogether different. It was filled wall-to-wall with nothing but horse manure. Upon seeing it, the boy lit up with a big smile and began enthusiastically wading through the manure, searching just as intently as the first boy. When asked what he was looking for, he said, “With all this horse manure, there must be a pony in here somewhere.”

As absurd as this may sound, don’t we in a way have similar tendencies when it comes to seeing what we want to see based on our own personal biases and prejudices? Let’s just say, like the first boy, instead of a pony, we hold an extreme bias against our current president or his presidential opponent, depending on our politics. In fact, we’re so blinded by our bias that we can’t acknowledge even one positive accomplishment made by the candidate we loathe. So instead of celebrating the pony in the room, we continue to focus on the horse manure.

To justify our bias, we turn to the safety and support of our favorite social and mass media outlets for more of the horse manure that we seek. Conversely, there are those who only see a giant pile of horse manure spread from coast to coast, as proof positive that it must be a “cover up” for the real truth.

To paraphrase an old Johnny Lee country song, could it be that both type folks are looking for “truth” in all the wrong places?

Finding absolute Truth is next to impossible these days. To whom can we turn to give us the real truth anymore? Objective journalism went the way of the dodo bird long ago. Today’s reporters are actually rewarded for fomenting unrest, division and conflict because it sells papers and grows ratings. Once upon a time, trainwreck reports were limited to actual trainwrecks. Now the press routinely conjures up political trainwrecks that wreck people’s lives instead for the sake of increased circulation or viewership.

That leaves us with the daunting task of figuring out ways to find the truth on our own. But how do we do that without having to slog through the ugly process? Few want to see how hamburger meat is made, but love a great hamburger. We need to shine the light of day on the results and ignore the process. To find actual results, though, you have to mine for the unvarnished facts. This requires an objective eye. Unfortunately, you can’t even rely on most so-called fact-checker websites today to help with that. It’s a fact that fact-checking the fact-checkers almost always reveals a hidden fact-spinning agenda on their part.

Jesus once said, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, neither can a bad tree bear good fruit. …Thus by their fruit you will know them.” Sound advice to both believers and non-believers alike.

Let’s not be distracted by the words of a candidate, but judge them by the fruit of their actions. Set aside the howling rhetoric, name-calling and crudeness and calmly look at each candidate’s rock solid accomplishments, good or bad, throughout their political careers. Once these results are laid bare, do they square with your core beliefs? If so, all the shouting and screaming ultimately comes to nothing. Ignore all the horse manure on each side and vote your conscience for the one who brings the most ponies to the rodeo.