When Facts Aren’t Everything

Art Buchwald

I became an avid reader of the humorist Art Buchwald as a freshman in college after he spoke in the Baylor chapel. I was drawn to the way he touched on sensitive and controversial issues without alienating his audience. He spoke on our campus at the height of the Vietnam War, when campus unrest rocked college life and anti-war demonstrations were being held all over the country. What drew college students to Buchwald was that even when people disagreed with him, they appreciated his irenic and humorous presentations.

Speaking in the Baylor chapel Buchwald masterly compared what was going on in Southeast Asia to the Battle of the Little Big Horn, when Custer’s entire five companies of soldiers were wiped out by a collection of Indian tribes. He began his imaginative story of that fateful day by reporting that an officer came to Colonel Custer and excitedly claimed that hundreds of Indians had been killed. Custer then inquired, “And how many men did we lose?” The officer proudly boasted, “Only 75 men.”

A few minutes later the officer appeared again and informed Custer that once again scores of Indians had been killed. Custer, with growing confidence, asked, “How many of our soldiers fell in battle?” “Only 62 men,” the officer replied.

Battle of the Little Big Horn

Finally, the officer returned and told Custer that 55 more Indians had been killed and the cavalry had lost 22 troops. Custer, with the smell of victory in the air, shouted, “We’ve won the battle!” The officer, somewhat chagrined, said, “Well, not really, sir, we only have two men left. And then an arrow pierced the officer’s heart and he dropped dead, but not before he faintly muttered, “Sir, make that one left!”

Buchwald’s story of Custer’s Last Stand satirically conveyed a much larger picture of the war in Vietnam. It was factually true that the enemy losses day after day were greater than those of the American forces, but that was only part of the story. What government officials often failed to tell the American public was that the Vietcong had far more available fighters in reserve.

Just because something is true and factual doesn’t necessarily mean we have the full story. Without context facts can be manipulated and twisted to make the most bizarre claims.

Recently, James K. Glassman, a Washington Post writer, reported on a fourteen-year-old student in Idaho Falls, Idaho, named Nathan Zohner. At his school’s Science Fair Nathan talked about the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. According to Nathan’s research, this particular chemical has been attributed to thousands of deaths each year in America alone. In its gaseous form, it can cause severe burns all over the body. DHMO, as it is sometimes called, accelerates the corrosion and rusting of metals and is a major component of acid rain. When tumors are excised from terminally ill patients, DHMO is found in the cancerous cells.

Nathan Zohner

Symptoms of ingestion include excessive sweating and having to frequently urinate. Those who have developed a dependency on DHMO will die within a manner of days if they suddenly and completely withdraw from it.

Nathan Zohner shared this information with 50 of his classmates to make them aware of this ubiquitous chemical found everywhere in the country. The students in his class were from highly educated families, many of whom had scientific backgrounds, and were shocked by Zohner’s report. Everything that Zohner stated was completely true. He did not embellish a single word. After Zohner’s report, 43 of the 50 students stated that the chemical should be banned.

It was only then that Nathan Zohner revealed that the substance he was talking about and the one they wanted to ban was better known as H2O—water! Yes, WATER. Everything that Zohner told his class about Dihydrogen Monoxide, or water, was factual, but, of course, out of context. And out of context, his facts were misleading.

Facts alone, without a complete picture, can be and often are misleading and can lead to false conclusions. Facts alone seldom tell the complete story.

In Florida, where I live, I was distraught to learn that some textbooks are being revised to delete references on race. Formerly, for instance, a history book reported that Rosa Parks was required to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white woman because she was black. Under a Montgomery law at that time, Black people had to not only sit in the back of the bus but had to give up their seat as well if asked by a white person. In this new and revised edition, Rosa Parks was simply told to move to another seat, with no mention of the racial factor.

What the revised textbook states is factual, but it omits important information. Without the reference to race, students will be deprived of a more complete picture of how Black people were treated during that tragic chapter in American history.

Sculpture of Rosa Parks inside bus at the National Civil Rights Museum

A few nights ago my wife and I listened attentively as a political pundit spoke about the savagery of the Native Americans, how they killed and butchered pioneers who traveled across the Great Plains. What this person said was true. Indians did indeed kill white people. What this person failed to say, however, was that white people had invaded the Indian land, slaughtered Indian people, and destroyed the Indian way of life. Without a complete picture of the bloodshed between Native Americans and white settlers, truth itself became a casualty.

In a court of law witnesses are obligated to tell the truth, but not just the truth—they must swear to tell the whole truth! Courts recognize that facts can be misleading when they are disconnected from the larger story. We’ve probably all had the disconcerting experience when what we believed to be true turned out to be only part of the story. Then, upon learning the rest of the story, we had to backtrack and admit we were wrong. It can be embarrassing and even humiliating.

Our human nature can sometimes blind us from seeing the big picture. We become comfortable with what fits our particular world-view and often ignore facts that challenge that understanding. Some people, like Buchwald, have a gift of helping us to see beyond a narrow set of facts and discover a more complete picture. To this day, whenever I hear a news report on almost any subject, I ask myself, “What is the rest of the story?” I have learned that there is almost always more to the whole truth than meets the eye.