Roger Meyer

Truth suppression comes in many forms, such as silencing, censoring, covering up, boycotting, sequestering, and even “canceling.” We hear a lot about transparency, but sadly it is often missing in the words and deeds of business, government, media, and personal relationships. Why do we “suppress the truth”?

Have you ever noticed that the most popular, most successful practitioners of sports, music, or any endeavor—those we consider stars and heroes—are never half-hearted? Quite the opposite, they pursue their craft with zeal, dedication, passion, spirit, and all their heart.

“You can’t handle the truth!” is a famous line in the 1992 movie A Few Good Men. Naval lawyer Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), questioning Base Commander Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson), says he wants the truth. Colonel Jessup yells in response, “You can’t handle the truth!” Can you handle the truth?

We live in trying and stressful times. Now, more than ever, we need to have hope. Today, hope is generally considered a feeling of wishing for or desiring something. Is that the kind of hope we need?

People say things like “I hope our team wins” or “I hope I get this job.” We desire these things to happen, considering our preferred outcome possible but not assured.

When my wife and I get up to have our morning coffee, we often say, “Shall we turn on the news and see what ‘blew up’ last night?” We wonder: What disaster, murders, shootings, riots, robberies, accidents, fires, pandemic deaths, political bickering, legislative logjams, scandals, bankruptcies, lawsuits, debt increases, or other negative things happened since yesterday? There is usually something to sigh about.