*American writer and humorist Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”
There are many historical events I could reference that could have had a different outcome had the truth outran the lie; but while the popular movie, Till (the story about Emmett Till), is in the spotlight, I’d like to highlight the similitude of 1955 and where we are now as a nation in 2023.
Echoes of America’s slavery and Jim Crow laws still reverberate even today. In the movie, the mother, Mamie Till – portrayed by actress extraordinaire Danielle Deadwyler – upon receiving her dead son’s body at the train station, cried out a gut-wrenching expression of grief that is still the all-too-common thread of mothers across the nation. The questions remain: “Why?” and “Where’s the justice?”
In 1955, Money, Mississippi was a microcosm of what America had become as a whole. The social and political climate of 1955 Mississippi is no different than the climate of 2023 where people would rather believe a lie than the truth. Confirmation bias causes people to see and believe what they want to see and believe.
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In 1955, a White woman, Carolyn Bryant accused a Black 14-year-old Emmett Till of “making lewd remarks and grabbing her.” As a result of Emmett’s brutal murder, Mamie’s decision to have an open casket funeral for the world to see the grotesque remains became a major trigger to advance the civil rights movement. All hell broke loose on the basis of what turned out to be a lie. The murderers were acquitted and later admitted their guilt during a paid interview with Look Magazine. How brazen of them to boast in plain view and for the media and justices to allow it with no consequence: “We lied, got away with murder, and got paid for it!”
In 2021, after losing the presidential election; after refusing to concede; after refusing the transfer of power; after refusing to accept from advisers that there was no widespread fraud, and the election was not “stolen,” former president Trump started “The Big Lie” that there was indeed widespread fraud and that the election was stolen with no evidence to back up his claims. As a result, he has caused people like Speaker Kevin McCarthy to lie as well as other GOP members who were complicit in Trump’s attempt to overthrow the government during the insurrection on January 6, 2021, where people lost their lives.
Sixty-eight years later, there is no difference between what took place in the Till case and what’s happening today: Congressional representatives who took part in and/or supported the insurrection; who have openly been called out by the media; who have openly been called out as principles in testimonies released by the J6 bipartisan investigative committee; and who are brazenly boasting in plain view as if to say: “We are lying, getting away with (indirect?) murder, and are still getting paid for it!”
On Mark Twain’s observation of humanity on how a lie can outrun the truth: No truer words have ever been spoken, but truth is marching on!!
Larry Buford is a contributing writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” and “Book To The Future” (Amazon). Email: [email protected]
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