“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader

WHAT HAPPENED TO "TURN THE OTHER CHEEK?"

(Written 19 August 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 08 July 2009.)

A lawyer was telling me recently about a change in Arkansas law regarding issues of defamation and slander. It used to be that you could sue for perceived monetary damages, that is, you only have to prove that the slander MAY have caused a loss of income. Not any more. The Arkansas Supreme Court recently changed the rules, and now you have to prove that a defamation caused a ACTUAL monetary loss. This is a virtual impossibility; except in extraordinary circumstances, who can say without a shadow of a doubt that a monetary loss might not have occurred anyway regardless of whether or not any defamatory statements were made?

This new interpretation of the law is bad for victims of slander, as it makes the chances of winning a case difficult. However, for columnists, this law is great. I asked this lawyer, if, as a columnist, I could say "‘so-and-so’ is cheating on his wife and has been spotted repeatedly in a neighboring town with another woman." "Sure." "And ‘so-and-so’ can’t sue me?" "No, especially if ‘so-and-so’ is a prominent public figure." "Hmmm."

I left feeling that I had acquired a newfound power. I can say anything I want about anybody and get away with it. I could name the name of the woman I know who had a "thing" for her male boss and when her boss did not respond to her feminine charms, accused the poor man of harassing her. I could tell you whose car is parked in whose driveway for hours and hours when the driveway owner’s spouse is away. Okay, let’s quit beating around the bush. I know a lot of dirty little secrets and I could publish each and every one of them, true or not, because it would be virtually impossible to prove actual monetary damages.

I could, but I won’t. Why? Because it's not the proper thing to do. I just don’t do things like that.

I have heard remarks that I am vindictive and that I have some kind of ax to grind. If I really had an ax to grind, if I really was vindictive, I would tell all. I have heard from more than one person that since everybody else is out there grinding axes, that it is inevitable that I am, too. This saddens me, for anybody who really knows me knows that I do not behave that way. My parents did not raise me to be a nasty little snipe. What is even more distressing than the personal implications are the societal implications. Society has come to expect nastiness and vindictiveness. It is no longer the exception; it is the norm. Which makes us all liars and hypocrites.

Every week we go to houses of worship where we our taught to be kind to our neighbor, to turn the other cheek, to treat others as we would want to be treated. Yet, no sooner do we leave our house of worship then we treat people like dirt by being mean and nasty. By lying, cheating, and stealing. All without a moment’s hesitation. After all, we’ve given God his hour. Back to the same old same old.

Read just about any newspaper, and you will find that most columnists will not hesitate to tell the dirty little secrets. That is the name of the game, after all. Listen to the radio, and not only are many of these guys generally obnoxious, they do not hesitate to spread hearsay about anybody. And we allow this to happen. We don’t tune out the bigmouths; we tune them in to hear the latest juicy gossip. We slavishly read those columnists that have nothing better to do than resort to name-calling. And because of our devotion, it doesn’t subside. It festers and grows like an infection.

The thing about an infection is that if it is left untreated it will eventually kill you. Hopefully, we will stop this infection before it kills us as a society. It’s not too late to do the right thing.

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