Lies and Such

Lies, untruths and deceptions are not the exact same thing but they are reflective of character. In this business of firearms journalism I don’t see a lot of lies making it into print. However, on occasion some untruths and deceptions do rear their ugly head. I know I’ve been guilty of an untruth here and there and my only excuse would be due to lack of understanding. However, as good as that excuse might sound, it’s not acceptable.

Many times writers are tasked with writing about things they know little about. For example, I’m not a shotgun guy. I don’t like them and I don’t know a lot about them. I’m sorry if I’ve deflated the bubble you had but those are the facts. Early in my writing career, when an editor asked me to write about shotguns, I took the assignment. I’m sure that the result was some untruths appearing in print.

For the most part, I turn down opportunities to write about things I know nothing about. However, on occasion, if something interests me I’ll write about it but I’ll do so after extensive research, and then I’ll cover it from the standpoint of, look what I learned from…. I also avoid taking assignments that I do not believe I can complete by the deadline. I’m sure this has ticked some editors off but it keeps me from calling and saying, “I’m going to be late.”

A lie, like the famous, “If you like your health insurance you can keep it.” Is something I avoid at all costs; except around Christmas, birthdays, the 1^st of April and anytime I am perpetuating a practical joke. Of course, those exceptions do not make them OK but such is life.

I had an editor once promise me an assignment only to call a few weeks later and say he had forgotten that he had previously promised it to another writer. He said he would make it up to me and did with multiple other assignments. I could have been mad at what could be called a lie but shit happens and sometimes folks forget things. In the end, the editor’s character showed through and he did what was right by honoring his original commitment to the other writer and making it write with me.

And there is the point of this meandering. Sometimes we tell folks things that we believe to be the absolute truth, only to find out later that it was not. Are we wrong for initially stating what we believed? Are we a liar for doing the same? I don’t think so. We are mostly humans and we make mistakes. The measure of the thing is what we do when we realize that we cannot deliver on a promise or that we have misinformed someone.

I promised my son that if he made captain of his 8^th grade varsity basketball team that I would not miss a game. He did and the result was that I had to cancel my trip to SHOT Show. Professionally I might pay for that decision but not as much as I would have paid for it had I not honored my word.

Part of being a man is doing what you say you are going to do. The other part is stepping up and taking the hit for not being able to do what you said you were doing to do. What folks cannot let slide is the realization of intentional deception or failure to stand accountable for untruths or failures to deliver.

It’s kind of like a gun; you expect it to work all the time because no manufactures say their guns only deliver some of the time. When your gun does not work you look for a reason – a good excuse – and if you cannot pin that reason on the operator (you), the ammo or the magazine, your faith in that gun is damaged, forever!

Same with people.

A man promises me he will deliver then I expect that. If he does not, I expect an excuse better than “My dog ate my homework.” Short of that, you can rest assured I won’t be buying that fellow a drink just like I would not rely on a gun that treated me the same way. When your life has more guns that you can trust than people, you might want to look closely at the crowd you run with. Sometimes we just have to kick folks – and guns – to the curb and move on down the line.