Same subject. Same event. Two very different headlines.
Now, let's put this into perspective. On one hand, we have our local news media, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, reporting that the march by the group was a call for justice. Their sub-headline reads "Police made no arrests during mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter Rally". On the other hand, we have a national media source, Fox News, emphasizing a specific chant from the group, declaring the rally a disruption. Their sub-headline reads "Black Lives Matter protesters marching on the Minnesota state fair on Saturday spewed violent anti-cop rhetoric".
It's also important to note that I actually don't know what went on that day. I simply was not there. In fact, I was over 350 miles away. While it can be useful to form our own thoughtful conclusions from the news, one must never chalk up their own inferences without a grain of salt. For the most part, the people who want to believe that the individuals involved with Black Lives Matter St. Paul disrupted the state fair are going to watch Fox News and believe just that. And at the same time, those who'd like to believe that the marchers were merely calling for justice are going to read the Star Tribune, and they too are going believe just that. So what then, is the truth? How do we know if what we're watching on the news is the entire, unabridged story? How do we know if the way someone portrays themselves on social media is their true, honest self? That's a trick question, because you can't. You never really can. There will always be a program out there letting people believe whatever it is they want to believe. But I for one would like to believe my very own senses.
That aside, it is possible to find the truth. But it's not as easy as a simple google search. It never was. The truth lies in those there on that Saturday in St. Paul, marching with their fellow peers. The truth lies in the police officers protecting the marchers as they made their way up Snelling Ave. The truth lies in the thousands of witnesses at the fair, be it for an hour or just a fleeting moment. Everyone there that day is going to have their own story of what happened. And though that story may be different coming from the 47 year old at the head of the march than that of the 4 year old watching for a few moments from within the fairgrounds, it's really all the same. Because the truth is a collection of all these perceptions strewn into a single, impossibly complex story that no news studio will ever be able to capture.
I never really was much fan of the news. Since the advent of television, it really has become a form of entertainment; a contest of who can find the most interesting stories and get the best ratings, often putting integrity and relevance in the back seat. There seems to be too much subjectivity cast into a medium starving for objectivity. To the average Fox News reader, Saturday's occurrence was just another Black Lives Matter rally interrupting the status quo. To the average Star Tribune reader, it was just another peaceful protest. To me, it's just another news story; an event that I was not a part of but nonetheless invited to form my own conclusions about. Whether I believe myself is another story.
But even though I lack certainty, I can still imagine the real truths of Saturday, the truths culminating within the minds of those marching, of those advocating that black lives do matter. Because to these individuals, the truth of Saturday transcends that of what was said, what was heard, or even what happened. The ultimate truth lies in the fact of the event itself. If everyone on Earth agreed that all black lives 100% matter, then that organization, I presume, wouldn't even exist. But the problem is that not all of us do, and that truth seems to be what this march was all about. Years ago, it was this very truth that fueled the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. And still today, it's this truth that encourages the action of organizations around the nation to seek fairness. It's this truth that drives those from Black Lives Matter to wake up each morning in an unequal world, and cultivate the resilience and audacity it takes to fight for an equality that should have existed before they even fell asleep.
