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Tim Mannello
Williamsport
It's getting hard to believe the truth will set us free at the same time misinformation is enslaving us. That is why it is important to heed the words of the French writer Charles Peguy: "We must always tell what we see. But above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see."
To this day, despite all the evidence to the contrary, many individuals and groups will tell you that they have seen the footage of the violent attack of our Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and what they saw was not an attack carried out by a group of Trump supporters storming the Capitol building, some armed and dressed in combat gear, in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the election results by Congress. Instead, with a straight face, they will say that it was a peaceful protest or that the violence was instigated by the government or other rioters.
When they do, don't waste your breath trying to persuade them to believe their own eyes. These observers did not see what they saw; they saw what they wanted to believe. Believe me, that's their story and they are going to stick to it no matter what. And they have millions of people who will back them up. Don't ask me why. I'm not a shrink.
But if we allow ourselves to think their belief is just one. defensible perception among others of what actually happened, we are as delusional as they are. While it may be useless for us to try to change their false belief, it is also absolutely dangerous for us to pretend, by our silence, that their self-deception corresponds to anything close to reality. The time for playing along with clear misrepresentations is over. The stakes are too high.
When we watched the assault on our Capitol live or replayed on film, we all had the chance to say "That's it. Enough, enough," and to stand by the plain truth of what clearly played out before our very eyes. Inexplicably, half of us have refused to do so. The truth does not automatically set us free. It does so only if we allow it to penetrate and replace the partisan fables to which we so desperately cling.