"To Tell the Truth and Nothing But the Truth"

Testimony given in an American courtroom is preceded by an oath:  “Do you solemnly swear (affirm) that you will tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God (or under pains and penalties of perjury)?”  If you willingly give false witness—if you lie—after having sworn this oath, you are subject to perjury (lying).  Lying under oath is a serious offense and under federal law is classified as a felony punishable to up to five years in prison.

Does it take an oath in a courtroom for us to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?  When we look at our history—200 years ago, 100 years ago, or even yesterday—do we tell the truth about the event or happening?  Do we render our historical moments with nothing but the truth?  We do not.  When the truth is told, we are fully aware of how we falsify, cover-up and ignore the facts.  

When we talk about returning to another era in our American history that we say was better than the one we know now, we are perjuring ourselves.  We are not remembering correctly or we are ignoring  the “truth and nothing but the truth.”  Where and to what do you want to return?  The 1900’s?  Women couldn’t vote then and an influenza epidemic took more lives than “the war to end all wars,” (nearly 50 million people—one-fifth of the world’s population). The 1930’s and 40’s?  There was a great depression then and people were starving to death.  The 1950’s?  Jim Crow, segregation, polio, and a Cold War filled that era. When we talk about going back, we only look at half the truth of that particular era and ignore the “rest of the story.”  We commit perjury.

We commit perjury when we lump all law enforcement members together as good, or military members all together as being heroes, or lump Christians together as somehow better than any other group. It just isn’t true if we are telling  “nothing but the truth,” which means we must tell of the dark side as well as the light side. We must talk about the Inquisition and St. Francis of Assisi. It means we will not conveniently forget or withhold the atrocities and only mention the positive.  If we tell the truth and nothing but the truth, we cannot ignore the weaknesses and only tell of the strengths.

When we acclaim the greatness of America we must also include our scars and our wounds.  When we talk about our victories we must also include our loses.  When we speak of our triumphs we must also confess our failures.  Otherwise we commit perjury—and the reason perjury is classified as a felony is because it can derail the basic goal of the justice system—the discovery of truth.  (Thus, to commit perjury is to also derail both history and reality).

Genuine roses come with thorns.