Because it is that bad. It just isn't that picture.
I want to grab the shoulders of the people sneaking not-quite-exactly-right pictures into articles and say, "You are damaging your own cause! You are causing the public to mistrust reports of a very real genocide. This evil is bad enough without your having to darken it up for public consumption. The truth does not need your help."
That's the crux of it. The truth does not need your help. The truth can stand on its own two feet, thank you very much. The truth does not need you running PR for it. When you spin truth, it's not truth anymore. The only thing you have to do for the truth is tell it.
Regarding Iraq, the truth is that people are being beheaded. People are being raped, shot, hanged, and crucified. The truth is that nobody is coming to kill my babies today, and the truth is that Christians in Mosul and Northern Iraq can't say that - people ARE coming to kill them and their babies. The truth is that families are fleeing into the mountains and starving to death, ISIS on their heels, coming after them with evil and lies and death in their hearts. And that truth is enough, no misplaced pictures of decapitated babies required.
The truth does not need your lying for it. Will you bring this thought into your speech and your internet sharing and right into the heart of all of your relationships? The truth does not need my help.
Let us not manipulate by exaggerating our hurt or our oppression. Black is black enough without us sensationalizing it for shock value. Be brave, step up to the mic, and tell the truth. Speak loud and measured and long. Tell us what happened, and why, and how. Tell us how it made you feel. And then step back and let the truth stand. Discerning, compassionate people will come to stand beside you.
Let us not aim to impress by exaggerating our happiness and our blessings. Be grateful, step up to the mic, and shout praise. "I am blessed. I am fortunate. I am excited that this wonderful thing has happened for me." Then step back and let the truth stand. Discerning, joyful people will come rejoice with you. None of us have the stomach for showmanship; it sours fast.
The truth does not need your shady advertising campaign. When we hear truth, it grabs us. I wrote last month about an inner truth cat. I still think about my inner cat often, because it describes exactly the sensation I have when I hear the truth. I can also liken it to a bear standing in a river catching fish. I stand there, letting all the words and all the life flow over me, feeling...feeling...feeling...then I feel it. THERE. That's the true thing. And I reach out and grab it. That true thing is what I was after; that's what will feed me.
One of the books I read to my kids often is Demi's The Empty Pot. It's about a little boy named Ping who grows the most beautiful flowers in China, but can't get a seed given to him by the emperor to grow. Everyone teases him when he comes before the emperor, head bent low, with an empty pot. The emperor then names Ping successor to the throne because Ping had the courage to appear before him with nothing but "the empty truth."
The empty truth. I love that.
I want to have the courage to appear before the world with the empty truth. I want to show up, every day, truth in hand, and let that be enough. No fluff. No lies. No spin to make the dark a little darker, or the light a little lighter. I want to say what I mean, mean what I say, and stand - head high and unafraid - because the truth is enough.
The only thing we need to do to the truth is tell it.
