KEN GRABOWSKi: Telling the truth should come naturally, but that’s not the case

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

Famous line from a courtroom scene in a 1950s/’60s Perry Mason episode.

It always seemed at the last minute of every episode of his popular television show, Perry would “pull a rabbit out of the hat” so to speak by getting the real killer to confess while testifying because they were so consumed with guilt that they had to tell the truth. The confession would always get Perry’s client off the hook when it looked like they were destined to go to prison or the gas chamber.

That was great television for that era, but not anything like the world in which we presently live. The key being it was television or fiction, and today it seems harder to find cases of people telling the truth to do the right thing.

In most facets of today’s world when someone is caught red-handed doing something wrong or illegal, the proper procedure most accused follow is to use some form of “the rhyme defense.”

I am sure some are now scratching their heads wondering what is “the rhyme defense?” What the rhyme defense amounts to is “lie, deny, never look them in the eye and most importantly blame the other guy.”

For some mysterious reason, it appears that telling the truth doesn’t seem to exist much anymore, and that is sad. What’s worse is how it is almost looked down upon as being weak when someone wants to do the right thing and tell the truth.

Instead of looking at the guilty party when they do confess and saying, “At least they still have a shred of dignity left to tell the truth,” the way it’s viewed it now is, “Why did you confess? You could have easily beaten that.”

Maybe noted author/philosopher Mark Twain put it best when he said, “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” Think about that!

Can you picture anyone coming forward today and saying, “That’s right I did it.” That just isn’t going to happen anymore.

What is even more amazing is how this “rhyme defense” has become a world-wide problem when people use it to defend what they do. Just look at what Putin and Russia did in the Ukraine, using that exact line of defense.

When they were lining up troops on the Ukrainian border, Putin kept denying and lying saying they were just running training exercises and there wasn’t any planned invasion in the works. He refused to talk to the media so he didn’t have to look them in the eye and answer their questions.

And then most egregiously after moving troops into the area, he said the Russians were doing it to “free” the Ukrainian people because he had to stop the Ukrainian leaders from Nazifying the country. Essentially that was the blaming of the other guy even though it was totally false.

Somewhere along the way, this has become a common defense around the world when you are caught doing something wrong.

You now may be accused of having your hand stuck in the cookie jar and even though it may still be wedged tightly around your fist at that moment, just deny it ever happened.

It sounds ludicrous, but we have reached the point where the rhyme defense is being used as an excuse for all kinds of bad behavior. It’s kind of like of criminal gold standard defense of, “That’s my story and I am sticking to it, so if I say it long enough hopefully someone will believe me.” Sad thing is they often do get believed by some.

Back in the day, Perry Mason could get the guilty party to break down many times and confess with a mere sliver of evidence or a bluff.

Maybe the show’s producers could sell that story line to the viewing public because it was a different time when honesty and telling the truth were human values that were still looked upon in a favorable manner, but those days are long gone.

Even in today’s tech-filled world where everyone has a video-camera phone and surveillance cameras are essentially placed on every street corner, guilty parties still try to bend or deny the truth. You can show a clear video of someone robbing or assaulting someone and the first thing they do is lie to say, “It never happened.”

Play them video and audio where they essentially are confessing to what did and they deny it with “I never said that and what I did say about doing it is being ‘taken out of context’.”

Not even sworn testimony of others who were at the scene when it happened or emails of that accused person admitting to someone else what they did, can get them to tell the truth.

Maybe part of the problem is we no longer stress in society the importance and value of telling the truth. More importantly we probably don’t put enough good examples of it in front of people to see.

Those of us who are old enough remember from our childhood elementary school days the story of George Washington telling the truth after chopping down the cherry tree.

Was it corny? Yes, but for years back then it drove home in all young minds that even someone like the father of our country could “fess up” and tell the truth after doing something wrong.

What would today’s Washington do if he was caught standing by a downed cherry tree with a running chain saw in his hands, cherry wood sawdust on his boots and pants? By today’s standards he would probably say, “I not only didn’t do it, but people tell me Jefferson is no fan of cherry pie so you better check him out.”

The bottom line is maybe if we get some truth and honesty back in this world, then it just might be a better place to live for everyone. Unfortunately, all we can do now is “hope” that starts happening by the time I see you again on Thursday.

Ken Grabowski is the retired associate editor of the Manistee News Advocate who spent more than 36 years in the newspaper business.