Woebeit being an intellectual watcher on the wall sometimes becomes a tiresome task, but unless I’m ever vigilant, misinformation and misconceptions will pollute my people’s malleable minds beyond repair. Ideally Black communicators: teachers, preachers, journalists, et al have an obligation to rightly divide the word, or take the spin out of special interest propaganda that ultimately divides and confuses our people, Ergo, we must forever be mindful of intellectual Trojan horses that are welcomed into our community under the guise of being gifts.

Mayhaps I should explain where I’m coming from, before taking you on an intellectual voyage into the Outer Limits of critical thinking, that oftentimes is mistaken for the Twilight Zone, inasmuch as it reveals that things spoken and/or unspoken aren’t always as they seem. Eyeview mavens well know that I believe in signs from the Almighty, Hence, when I feel His touch, I open my spiritual receivers forthwith and tune into his divine transmissions of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thus, the salient thought invading my cranial circuits in the wee hours of Sunday morning made me sit straight up in bed.

I’d forgotten the August 17, 2002 propaganda-proliferated radio talk show “Let’s Talk,” hosted by Dr. Gail Gross, until God shook me awake with her challenge being like fire shut up in my bones. Gross, a psychologist and nationally recognized expert on juvenile education and development, who is nice enough to visit us via our only Black radio station KCOH (1430 AM), on Saturday mornings from (9:30-12), asked the audience to make a concerted effort to tell the truth for an entire week and share the consequences with her the following week. Gail, my dear, God commanded me to tell you that’s virtually impossible to do. Why? Well, that’s a good question and I’m glad you asked.

First, and foremost, people simply can’t handle the truth, but more specifically, few, if any, can recognize truth from fiction. Honesty and truth ain’t the same thing. I suspect, Gross (in her zest to put a positive spin on what’s purported on her nationally syndicated talk show) confused truth with honesty. She even used kids’ penchant for telling it like it is, insofar as one must learn to be devious. Yes, Gross is asking for an expert opinion from clueless people. Surely, one can be honest, but unless the truth is obvious, they can only speculate. Okay, I know you won’t believe that a crazy, old African warrior has more sense than a pretty, highly educated White lady, so let’s go to our trusty old dictionary. Truth, according to Mr. Webster is, “That which is true or according to the facts of the case, agreement with reality.”

On the other hand, honesty is defined as: “The state of being honest, truthful, trustworthy, sincere or genuine.” Yep, it’s very easy to confuse the two concepts. For sure people honestly believe they speak truth, but what one thinks is personal, while truth is universal. Truth is, this holds true when one unwittingly regurgitates propaganda, or outright lies. Even so, I know where Dr. Gross was coming from. Nevertheless, many of the listeners questioned the value of truth. One thoughtful caller asked, “What’s so important about always telling the truth? What purpose does truth serve when it isn’t in our best interest?” Quite frankly, the guy was asking a philosophically question. Thus, I defer to the English poet William Blake (1757-1827), who wrote in Auguries of Innocence, “A truth told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent.”

In other words, it’s best that some truths aren’t revealed. America the Beautiful notwithstanding, is it in our best interest to teach patriotic young people that the so-called “Land of the free” was founded by crooks that slaughtered millions of Native Americans, not to mention Mexicans, to claim their land and then got rich off the backs of enslaved Africans kidnapped from their Motherland? I just thought I would ask, since our great nation seems to be adamantly against reparations for descendants of slaves. I even heard a sister called “Re-Joyce” say (on KCOH radio’s Person-to-Person) that she feels she isn’t owed any reparations. While I applaud her honesty, woebeit her truth is a damn lie.

Oh, the Bible says, “And ye shall know he truth, and the truth shall set you free?” You got that right. But… free from what? Expand your consciousness just a little and you just might conclude that the devil is the master of confusion and uses lies to trigger most sins, thus if you know the truth you are no longer a slave to other folks’ will. Now, you don’t have to tell the truth just because you know it and have the free will to refuse. Nonetheless, knowing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth allows you to freely make decisions that serve you best. Square business, I’ve tried to tell Dr. Gross that I’m a ghetto scholar myself, but she honesty doesn’t believe I’m telling the truth.

Hey, I’m smart enough to understand why it’s virtually impossible for a rich, well-educated woman and world traveler like her to believe that an old, Black man who speaks Ebonics could tell her anything of significance. Then again, I know she is way out in left field with her trademark question, “What was your defining moment?” Gross seems to think that defining moments are all good, rather than a startling look into the mirror of one’s very soul. Honestly, a defining moment is when self meets self between a rock and a hard place. And that’s the truth. I wonder if anybody knows where I’m coming from?