"The Insider" and Charlottesville

When the movie, "The Insider" came out in 1999, it never entered my world. It was brought to my attention recently as appropriate in considering a response to the Charlottesville horror.

In case someone reading this is not aware of the event, I will summarize:
A plan is under consideration to  remove Civil War hero statues in public places in North Carolina  where they stand.
 A peaceful rally was held by the extreme right wing Neo-Nazi group. They were advocating that the statues remain where they are.
Another peaceful rally also was held by another group advocating the removal of the statues from public places.
Both groups were passionate about their perspective which led to violent interaction between the two groups of protesters. Lives were lost.
Various news sources report the day's events with different biases regarding the motives behind the protest rallies.
Most of the people I know were struck with disbelief that either of these rallies could be happening in this world today.
Apparently, the prejudice of both perspectives has been seething beneath the surface for generations. I find myself wondering if there are plans to remove statues in the North USA as well,  as I remember the Taliban bombing ancient Buddhist shrines some years back.

The movie, "The Insider" was about an Executive VP of a tobacco company who blew the whistle on the practice of adding a chemical to cigarettes to make nicotine more addictive.  I thought the story was going to be about him, which it was, but it was also about Lowell Bergman who was producing "60 Minutes" with Mike Wallace, commentator at the time.
"60 Minutes" reported the news factually. You could trust what was reported and form your own opinions in relation to the facts.  Bergman and Wallace got to the heart of the matter and had a reputation which reflected great integrity and credibility. The story showed the extreme pressure to not pursue the truth of the horror of putting profit before people's health.

Of equal horror are the two stories:  one  of making cigarettes more addictive and; the other of violence caused by a movement to leave statues which stand for a slave based economy clashing with a movement to tear down memorials of lost lives.

Lowell Bergman never wavered in his quest to get the truth told. My life has been deeply addressed by his passion and integrity to get to the root cause of human suffering and bring it to the consciousness of, at the time, 30 million viewers,  in  a way that it could not be ignored.

I am inspired to be so committed and to call for the truth in a way that can not be ignored. I also want to add that the truth to which I refer is not the opposite of lying.  It is about exposing injustice which hinders the highest good.

Who in Public Service is there doing this today? Who is calling these destructive forces into account, demanding that what history has created will not be destroyed. I have heard only shallow, biased, and politically advanrageous responses to this tragedy of our times.

We see the same happening every day in so many ways, be it regarding climate change, public education, human rights or  health care, to name a few. 

The travesties of today are overwhelming. The truth is being denied public access, while at the same time we are suffering the consequences of realities. 

We, the public, are being terrorized by relentless threats to our sense of well being, to our trust in those who we have chosen to be our leaders.

 How do we be the Lowell Bergman's who catalyze the deep resolve that exposes the truth which blocks progressive policies and respect for human differences?