By Dr. Dencio S Acop
Do the right thing! Do we? It can be easy to do the right thing when everyone’s looking. But how about if no one is looking? Or worse, how about if no one seems to be doing the right thing but rather just the easy thing to do? In this brief article, I’d like to highlight three actual events through time that illustrate what happens when we do the right thing. Let’s reflect on this and try to examine ourselves and the world around us today. With social media, it is easy to project ourselves as righteous people just online. But how about in reality? Do we really walk our talk or do we just create this online persona on the pedestal to make us feel good?
After this read, I think we’ll realize that doing the right thing is not just a punchline. But doing it we must if only to preserve what’s decent and meaningful in our lives. The three illustrations I wish to highlight are Christopher Myers, Gary Webb, and Jesus Christ.
The first, Christopher Myers, is a fictional composite character who represents non-fictional persons witnessing the Armenian genocide towards the end of the Ottoman Empire. Portrayed by Christian Bale in the film “The Promise” (2016), Myers is a world-renowned American journalist with the Associated Press who exposed the empire’s heinous crimes against the Armenian people. In the adaptation, Myers is captured by Turkish authorities led by Talaat Pasha, the chief implementor of the genocide. He was arrested, incarcerated, and would have been executed had not the US ambassador, with threat of US retaliation, intervened. Myers’s character and reporting in the film is inspired by actual figures like Armin T. Wegner, Johannes Lepsius, Khanum Palootzian, Mesrob Kloian, and other historical witnesses. The witnesses themselves were persecuted and saw the wholesale murders of their loved ones and fellow Armenians. Without the witnessing of these few courageous survivors, the mass extermination and abuse of around a million Armenians, and forced Islamization of thousands of Armenian Christians by Turkish authorities during World War I (1915-1916) would not have been known. Atrocities committed against the Armenians included marching them to their deaths in the Syrian desert, rapes, murders, and beheading of Armenian babies by Turkish nationalists. Turkey has denied the commission of genocide against the Armenian people but the public record of crimes against humanity endures to this day.
The second illustration is Gary Webb. An idealistic reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, Webb courageously wrote a series of articles in the mid-1990s about the illegal activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in colluding with drug cartels operating in the United States and using the funds raised to buy guns for Contra rebels fighting the leftist but legitimate Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration resorted to the back-channel operation when it did not get the support of Congress in its drug war. This Machiavellian strategy, however, was doomed from the start as it hypocritically undermined the drug war it sought to win at home. The massive narcotics unleashed upon US streets created a bigger domestic problem than the foreign policy issue the administration claimed to simultaneously address. While the CIA retaliated by destroying Webb’s credibility leading to his leaving journalism, the Iran-Contra scandal eventually proved factual which nearly disgraced President Ronald Reagan. The CIA was accused, not only of drug-trafficking involvement to fund the Contra rebels, but arms-trafficking to Iran as well for the same objective. Media coverage of the scandal would have exonerated the crusading lone journalist but another scandal – the Clinton philandering with Monica Lewinsky – caught the public eye instead. Webb was ably portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the movie “Kill the Messenger” (2014). With Webb publicly disgraced and eventually losing his life (2004) in an alleged suicide with two gunshot wounds to the head, his story almost concludes that fighting for truth and justice does not pay.
Finally, our third illustration is the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Myers and Webb, Christ spoke only the truth but instead suffered and died for it. He is, of course, the incarnate Son of God. But none of his persecutors knew. Or, rather, they knew or heard of it but refused to believe. In fact, Christ is the original rebel who preceded all who disagreed with falsehoods leading to untold injustices, including Myers and Webb. Any genuine crusader for truth and justice, therefore, are Christ-like figures who unknowingly walk in the footsteps of their model. I deliberately chose the Messiah for my final illustration for a number of reasons. First, doing the right thing may not pay off in this life but it most certainly does in the next life. Examples like Myers and Webb may not be obvious illustrations for attaining truth and justice in the world, but Christ is. Christ’s passion, crucifixion, death, and resurrection are well documented. Thus, to be a follower of Christ through the injustices of this life is to be an heir to his eternal justice beneficial to the soul long after the body dies. Second, doing the right thing is not easy for it entails delayed gratification. Like anything in life worth having, there is a so-called timing to everything. There is a time to live and a time to die. But happy are those who persevere to the very end for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Third, never lose heart but rather keep trying despite temporary setbacks. We are fallen creatures but our imperfection can be our motivation than our curse. Use every fall as an opportunity to rise up, again and again. God sees our struggles even if man doesn’t. Therefore, trust in the perfect God more than in imperfect man. Finally, do the right thing even when no one does and no one cares. The more you are persecuted, the more should you persevere. For the dark night of the soul is actually the bright light of day when all are surrendered and entrusted to God. So, go and keep doing the right thing if you haven’t already.
