As usual, Albert's got it right

A Houston grand jury’s indictments Monday provided a powerful teaching moment for the masses.

The grand jury, tasked with investigating Planned Parenthood because of undercover footage purportedly proving illegal activities, did much more than clear the organization of breaking the law. It discovered what it says are the commission of illegal acts by the anti-abortion activists who made the videos.

Now, before you Planned Parenthood advocates break out the champagne and you anti-abortion activists cry foul, put this picture in perspective. Indictments have been returned against two anti-abortionists accused of tampering with governmental records, but that doesn’t mean they’re guilty. It only means there are now serious, formal charges against the accused — in this case, people responsible for making and disseminating the videos, which in turn became the trigger for Republican demands in Congress to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

The teaching moment is this: As Albert Einstein once proclaimed, “Question everything.”

Common sense might have dictated that because those who secretly made and circulated the volatile videos had a powerful motive to bring Planned Parenthood to its knees, investigation should have been required before conclusions were reached. But common sense often takes a back seat to outrage and opportunity, and in this case, videos that damned Planned Parenthood to fiscal hell might very well prove bogus.

What’s astonishing and disappointing is that many members of Congress, perhaps positioning for votes rather than following due process, were so quick to open fire on Planned Parenthood on such dubious evidence. Maybe real evidence was never the goal.

For the rest of us, it’s good to recognize that technology has advanced to the point where pure fiction can be made to look like absolute fact. As a society, our skepticism should be heightened like never before. Where there’s strong motive — beliefs, objectives, desire for revenge — there now are better tools to sway the gullible.

We’re not taking sides in the abortion debate or even the videos that prompted national upheaval. We are advocating that in all things, a little healthy skepticism can go a long way toward eventually arriving at the actual truth.