Two Truths and a Lie

It’s election time and the world is rife with truth-telling and accusations of lies. I started this piece summer of 2022 and decided to pull it together now.

The book, New Kid, written by Jerry Craft for middle school readers (think Junie B Jones; Captain Underpants; The Mouse and the Motorcycle), is banned by some school districts. Objectors claim the book is promoting a specific theory of race that unnecessarily makes kids in the majority culture feel badly about themselves. A lead organizer of the opposition stated in an interview (This American Life, January 2022) that she did not “believe [several events in the book] …. were true.” When interviewed, the author listed which events were based on his actual life experiences and which were complete fiction. The organizer’s perception of untruth and the author’s report of his truth did not align.

Truth is a dicey thing. The philosopher, Nietzsche, purported that no single person could comprehend absolute truth. In Nietzsche’s view, we each see from our different perspectives, resulting in every person experiencing a piece of truth that is either incomplete and/or distorted because our singular perspective is limited. Author Sister Mara Faulkner, shares a similar, though slightly different, view of truth: “absolute truth is acquired through our communal/combined understandings.” I too believe truth is filtered through the observer’s lens and that our individual perspectives limit us from knowing complete truth. For this reason, I object to phrases like “unbiased reporting” or “an objective account.” Each person holds a specific bias based on their life experiences.

Caveat: I DO believe there are those who promote outright lies or create elusive twisting of truth in service of a specific outcome. I ALSO maintain an ongoing world view (perhaps naïve) that most individual people truly seek truth. (a challenge: most people also seek to feel comfortable, which is not necessarily compatible with truth.)

These thoughts brought me back to the icebreaker game, Two Truths and a Lie, where each person says three “facts” about themselves. One fact is a lie; listeners try to guess truth from the lie. Throughout this essay I have lists of facts which you can review as truths or lies. You will ascertain my truths. Yours may differ, but there will certainly be overlap. Let's go!

Situation 1: banning books

About 6 months ago, I received a flyer from a group of concerned parents about a book in the 9th grade curriculum at my local public school district. The book was Dear Martin by Nic Stone.

After reading the flyer, I looked up the website of the concerned parents. I know some of these parents; I believe they are well intended. Many are well-spoken strong leaders. They THINK their efforts are to keep the educational quality of our local district strong. I believe the educational quality of the district cannot stay high if difficult conversations on socially important topics are avoided.

Two truths and a lie:

• Concerned parents want an environment where their children can be the best version of themselves.

• Concerned parents desire excellence in education.

• Concerned parents want an environment where each student can be the best version of themselves.

Two truths and a lie:

• Some highly educated parents will remove their kids from the district IF complex discussions of race occur.

• Some high educated parents will remove their kids from the district if complex discussions of race DO NOT occur.

• Districts should make educational programming decisions based on parent preferences.

I read the book Dear Martin and discussed it with my book group this summer. It’s the story of a Black honors student in an elite high school trying to make sense of his role in the world by writing letters to “Martin” aka Dr Martin Luther King Junior. The protagonist feels caught between worlds, his primarily Black home neighborhood, and the predominantly White high school he attends. The between-worlds-tension is reflected in his thoughts about life, school, girls, friends, work, etc.… It's a book written for young adults with the level of irreverence consistent with notable high school level novels such as A Catcher in the Rye.

The concerned parents’ flyer listed specific swear words in Dear Martin and the number of times each word was used. The authors of the flyer raised concerns about this text being used to promote a specific racial agenda. They indicate they are for Kids over Politics and Character Over Race Everytime.

Two truths and a lie:

In the book Dear Martin,

• There are characters who are Black and extremely flawed.

• All the White people are painted as racist.

• Race is a factor in how each of the characters in the book experience their world.

Two truths and a lie:

• To Kill a Mockingbird, a recommended substitute book, contains the N-word more times than Dear Martin.

• Swear words are the reason concerned parents don’t like Dear Martin.

• Many concerned parents have not read Dear Martin

Situation 2. School district quality

My community is structured as a mini-urban place (~200,000 people in metropolitan service area) with a central city and multiple small towns that directly butt up to the center city. I live in one of those small towns. My local school district holds a reputation for being the place where educational levy’s pass. Funding for education is rarely in dispute. Real estate agents historically tell people that THIS is the district they want to be in for the best quality education. The graduation rates and test scores look better than in the central core and most of the other districts around us. But there is a lot to unpack in these numbers.

For example, my district has the most restrictive open enrollment policy among schools in Central Minnesota, which means very few students live outside of the small community. The community has put a moratorium on multi-family building in favor of building more single-family homes. The median price of homes in my community for sale this month is almost $100,000 higher than homes in the city core (Realtor.com). In short, the community and school structures favor families with professional level jobs and stable incomes.

Two truths and a lie:

• Local student test scores in my town are, on average, higher than those of students in surrounding districts.

• My local town has a higher proportion of highly educated families compared with the central city in our community.

• We can be 100% confident that the quality of my town’s local schools CAUSES higher test scores.

Two truths and a lie:

• Maintaining strict open enrollment rules will keep the quality of education better here than surrounding districts.

• Maintaining strict open enrollment rules will keep the test scores higher than in surrounding districts.

• Test scores are one way to measure district quality.

Situation 3: Me vs. you (aka I’m right, of course)

I practice in a progressive Christian faith tradition. One of the readings for this week was from Luke 18 contrasting two people and their ways of praying. The first person described was a leader in the church community whose position, on the surface, would suggest a life dedicated to good, moral outcomes. However, the prayer of this leader was self-righteous, sprinkled with arrogance. The second person held a position that, on the surface, appears self-serving. They collected taxes from others, and we can assume the tax collector benefited financially from this role. Yet the words of the tax collector reflected humility, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”

One could ask the church leader, how can you work towards morality and speak with arrogance? One could ask the tax collector, how can you work towards personal gain and speak with humility? It's easy to shoot down the arrogant prayer in this parable, but in both cases actions and words do not align. It’s an example of a core tenant of Lutheran theology that I love (and sort of hate too): we are simultaneously sinner and saint. Each of us has within us good and evil – At. The. Same. Time.

Confusing? Yes. True? Seems like it.

Our world is at a complex place. It feels like we are on the cusp of a civil war. Self-appointed truth-tellers are shouting at others, describing opposers as evil-doers. They are outraged by the harm and destruction the other side is bringing to their way of life, yet willing to go to contradict their own values to achieve specific desired outcomes.

I hold strong opinions. I have people I love deeply who hold different strong opinions. I don’t understand their perspectives. Most days, I'm pretty certain I'm right and they are misled. Yet, I cannot go to a place where I view the majority of us as stupid, evil, or destructive. I just cannot.

Two truths and a lie:

• I am confident in my truth.

• You disagree with me on at least some things.

• I am a better, less flawed person than you.

Two truths and a lie:

• The most important thing is for me to get others to act on my truth, whatever that takes.

• The most important thing is for me to work towards the greater good of my community, whatever that takes.

• Working for the greater good will require listening, learning, and the humility to change my mind.

What is your truth?

- Janet Tilstra