Opus 2025-291: Always Question

In church Sunday a man shared something that was going on in politics, and offered us a ray of hope.  He maintained that our state legislature had taken a bold step forward.  It sounded even better when he quoted the Constitution in support of what they’ve done.  I was impressed.  We were all impressed.

As I got home and reflected on what he shared it just didn’t seem like it was seamless.  I wasn’t familiar with the part of the Constitution that he had quoted so I went to the trouble of looking it up.  So far, so good.  This is what we should do.  Check our sources.  Check our facts.  Check our friends as well as our enemies.  Just because people are friends and are on our side doesn’t mean that they always get things right.

In this case I remembered where he said it was in the Constitution, so I was able to locate it and read it.  I read with anticipation.  Suddenly a wall of water washed away my enthusiasm.  What I read was almost the exact opposite of what had been quoted to me.  I read it and reread it.  I guess if I wanted to, I could warp it enough to justify the enthusiasm he was sharing, but no one who is objective would buy it.

I hope to see him and ask him about it in the future.  Maybe I heard him wrong.  Maybe I had my reference wrong.  Maybe the Google AI has rewritten the constitution in my computer.  And of course, maybe he was wrong.  Those are all good things to check as long as they are done with courtesy and respect, but the most important thing for us to do is to check.  Just because we like what we hear, doesn’t mean that it is correct or true.  That is a hard lesson but a very important one.

Keep in mind that we are on the side of the angels and the angels don’t confuse their sources.

homo unius libri