Many years ago, Chad Shank, co-host of The Doug Stanhope Podcast, raised a daughter he suspected wasn't his.
The mother was Catholic and not going to get an abortion. She was already raising several kids. She demanded he take the baby. Shank thought his life would end in murder or imprisonment if he didn't change its course. So he took on the responsibility of raising the child. After she was grown, it was confirmed that they were biologically unrelated.
In A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle writes of Japanese Zen Master Hakuin, who was accused of impregnating a teenage girl. His response was, "Is that so?"
He lost his reputation, and the parents of the girl demanded he raise the baby. He did so during the child's first year, and then the mother admitted that another man was the father. Her parents came to Hakuin and apologetically told him the news as they took the child back.
"Is that so?" is all that he said.
The two stories are about accepting responsibilities even based on information one suspects or knows is false.
I thought of these stories in relation to Caitlin Johnstone's continued commentary on the news blackout of information helpful to Julian Assange. I posted a comment:
I surmise that the NSA blackmails prominent journalists and their CEO bosses [to do its bidding], just as surely as J. Edgar Hoover blackmailed Presidents and members of Congress. When Obama didn't charge Clapper for lying to Congress, and left Snowden in exile, this is why. I suspect journalists were similarly coerced into disseminating the anti-Russia narrative in the first place.
If my "conspiracy theory" is wrong, then the journalists in question are very wicked indeed. My theory is the most charitable to them.
If the New York Times doesn't believe it's "fit to print" that an FBI informant admitted that accusations against Assange were fabrications, it's fair to cast doubt on what is printed. If the Times wants to keep us in the dark on one thing by omission, why wouldn't it deliberately misinform us on another thing?
On just about any news item, I think of Hakuin and say, "Is that so?"
In other words, I don't have to believe anything or take sides on whether something is factual or not. And neither do you.
But what if the news affects me personally? I hope I’ll remember that, instead of taking the side of truth, Chad Shank and Hakuin took the side of the baby.
Being compassionate is even more right than being right.
James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoy his articles, subscribe and exchange value for value. You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com. Permission to reprint is granted with attribution.
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