Every school morning beginning in the late 40’s until my retirement, I spoke these words in class. They still ring true to our vision as a nation, despite increasing division over the past few years. With the violent attack on our representative democracy by our own citizens on January 6, 2021, we need our leaders to ring them out again with us. But that’s not all we need from our elected leaders in Montana.
I heard the dirty yellow Plymouth drive up and honk. I walked over from my Bible school class with kids we hauled from North Gulfport to our church grounds. I still remember the driver’s angry gaze breaking through the early morning heat that Mississippi summer of 1965. He mumbled curses about human beings of color I prefer not to remember. I remember the words “pedophile ring” and “miscegenation going on here with our n…s.” I told him “You must have driven in here by mistake. I have no idea what you are talking about.” “But you got N---s here!” I heard the shout as he drove off, spraying my legs with gravel. Later we had another a bomb scare, also not unexpected, but still stressful in the political tension of the 60’s. I do remember thinking how powerful lies are when even a few people proliferate the outrage lies can generate.
But now, under the spell of digital media gone wild, we have a virtual flood of lies generating outrage between political enemies, inspired by enemy nations, motivating a rising militancy against our principles of law and order built on truth and our court system. We are losing and demeaning a judicial system among the best in the world. It’s vital importance is because in our nation, truth is not to be decided by a mob, by social media, or in the court of public opinion. Lies are to be confronted, and liars prosecuted to find truth. Without this tyranny looms.
Truth—legally speaking for our nation—is determined in a court of law. An allegation is brought forward. It must be supported by solid evidence, meeting legal requirements of validity. A judge examines the allegation and the evidence. If there is legally valid evidence to support an allegation, then the allegation is tried in a court of law. This is to guarantee any lawsuit allowed into court has legally certified evidence enough to follow through with the judicial process to determine truth.
Knowing that justice in the hands of humans inevitably will be imperfect sometime, our founding fathers created a process of appeals. This is because we all know that power corrupts, and we must always strive to protect citizens from an abusive government acting under the corruption of power. When our President lost the election, he had every right to file lawsuits in state courts wherever his attorneys sensed rigging, errors, or outright fraud. They did so, in 62 courts. None of the lawsuits, even in those states where Trump’s popularity was high, found adequate evidence to justify court action. The lawsuits were refused because factual evidence was missing. The president cannot legally overturn his loss in the election.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi advisor to Hitler, is quoted as saying, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Christians believe in a truth that stands outside of personal preference. That’s why our pledge includes the word “under God.” Satan, leader of the opposing spiritual realm, is the father of lies. Majority beliefs do not get us there. The false prophets of Israel outnumbered God’s prophet Elijah 450 to one, but Elijah was proven true in 1 Kings 18. To be under God means to seek truth, even when it’s costly
On January 6, thousands of protestors gathered in Washington D.C., fueled by a narrative that our national elections were rigged against the president. The lie was compounded by conspiracy theories fed on digital media. They invented lies of malicious dark powers, steeped in evils like pedophilia. They still are claiming this is at the helm of our Democratic party, falsely attacking real patriots for turning our nation into a socialist communist tyranny. Our powerful digital media, unhampered by normal human conversation, generated their toxic soundbites picked to be transmitted by Christian pastors, online preachers, pundits and TV commentators. It has paved an unconceivable way in our nation to reject what “The People have spoken” last November. It has generated millions of dollars in profit from contributions to the Republican party, and to President Trump personally. And it defies and discredits the states’ power to elect our president, and to conduct a reasonable investigation when evidence of fraud warrants it.
Moments after the President declared falsely a landslide victory had been stolen, and told the crowd they can do something about it, they marched towards the Capitol. As citizens watched in horror, a group of extremists rose to the crest of the wave and broke violently into the center of our representative democracy, our capitol building, leaving death and destruction, the fruit of lies.
Defying the independent judiciary of the courts at our state capitols attacks the core of our democracy. It’s astounding that most of our top elected Montana politicians continue such defiance. Senator Daines was asked about the President’s outrageous words encouraging the crowd on the way to the Capitol. He diverted to claim the upcoming 2nd impeachment is the real source of outrage, and should be stopped. That bothers me, because truth is hidden and a lie remains in power.
What bothered me in Mississippi a half century ago bothers me now. Our Republican government officials refuse to acknowledge the current lie about our election. It’s the same refusal that allowed many in our congress to deny the constitutional authority of the states to affirm the election. The character assassination of our Bible School staff was totally false, and had a political agenda to say Black lives do not matter in our nation. Truth is truth. Our president’s 62 lawsuits examined in state courts settled it over and over. Our American system of government of the people, by the people, and for the people is proven solid again. We the people can govern. But we need our Montana leaders to apply what patriotism they have, and uphold our American values of arriving at truth for this election. Our "Pledge of Allegiance" requires it.
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