NOT OPPOSITE, NOT THE SAME
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Not guilty.
That’s what headlines say.
Sometimes that means someone has been cleared, exonerated and proven beyond all doubt that they didn’t do it …
But we know, many times, ‘not guilty’ does not mean ‘innocent.’ When it’s a public figure or celebrity, we look askance or raise our eyebrows because we perceive ‘they likely did it’ – given law requirements, lawyers’ skills, good management and sometimes good luck, a guilty party gets off. But are they innocent, really?
Whether we look at the small-scale issues of someone on trial locally, a celebrity on trial in the court of public opinion, or despots waging war on the ground and in headlines, how do we know what is true?
I believe the Ukrainians are victims and Russians are the villains – but I don’t know if that’s true from first-hand knowledge; I know it because I trust journalism and our country(s) leaders who seem, except for the silent cowards on the sidelines, to have chosen a side.
On the social media meta-verse, the issues of what Musk did yesterday, whether celebrity Chef Battali did it or Johnny Depp said something – seem so unimportant to anything that truly matters, yet they are too.
Who we believe and why has never mattered more – and never been more in doubt.
Also, in the headlines, too often, or maybe not often enough, are those headlines revealing more atrocities against vulnerable people. At the same time, institutional leaders swept it under the proverbial rug-du-jour …
Reader feedback:
I have come to embrace the power of the bad review. It may not get you a refund but it is very satisfying, RH, Calgary, AB
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