welcome August 23, 2004 Issue

Doggedly seeking truth

Warren Bolon

It's a Familiar Scene on TV news-magazines and evening news programs. A journalist is relentlessly questioning someone, trying to get the whole story from a reluctant storyteller. The journalist is like a dog with a bone—no giving up, no artful dodging allowed.

My comparison doesn't tell the full story about journalism, or the whole truth about dogs, but it's a useful comparison. Following the revelations of prisoner treatment at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and the report of the United States Congressional September 11 panel, I found myself wondering if under similar circumstances I would be dog with-a-bone tenacious in holding to better sense of what's right. What might save me from the "failure of imagination" that the 9/11 report attributed to many good people among the intelligence community? What would keep me from following a downward spiral of cruelty like that which occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison?

Maybe it comes down to following two basic disciplines: Think for yourself. Don't cherish opinions. Any thought worth having—that benefits without exception—doesn't really originate in us. The divine Mind that formed us also informs us. We just don't always pay attention to the ideas pouring our way from our Creator.

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