Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!

That is the last line in the Aesop story, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and it holds an important lesson that people would do well to heed. Here's the story:

http://www.storyarts.org/library/aesops/stories/boy.html

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, "Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!"

The villagers came running up the hill to help the boy drive the wolf away. But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no wolf. The boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.

"Don't cry 'wolf', shepherd boy," said the villagers, "when there's no wolf!" They went grumbling back down the hill.

Later, the boy sang out again, "Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!" To his naughty delight, he watched the villagers run up the hill to help him drive the wolf away.

When the villagers saw no wolf they sternly said, "Save your frightened song for when there is really something wrong! Don't cry 'wolf' when there is NO wolf!"

But the boy just grinned and watched them go grumbling down the hill once more.

Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, "Wolf! Wolf!"

But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn't come.

At sunset, everyone wondered why the shepherd boy hadn't returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping.

"There really was a wolf here! The flock has scattered! I cried out, "Wolf!" Why didn't you come?"

An old man tried to comfort the boy as they walked back to the village.

"We'll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning," he said, putting his arm around the youth, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!"

There is an ugly new trend at mylot and in the outside world where just like thew boy in this story, people are making false cries, but they are crying racism where none exists instead of "wolf" but it is really no different. The more people make false accusations towards innocent people, the more good people will begin to turn away form hearing it, and when REAL racism shows up in all it's horrible ugliness, the cries will go unnoticed becasue people have stopped paying attention, like in the fable, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!"

I am not the only person to notice this phenomenon, here are some interesting links for anyone who cares to read and learn:

http://media.www.collegian.com/media/storage/paper864/news/1998/04/16/UndefinedSection/When-Racism.Cries.Wolf-1692658.shtml

http://leopardatthesummit.blogspot.com/2008/10/false-racism.html

"Cries of racism where it doesn't exist only makes those that care, turn the other cheek when it really happens. They will be tired of wasting their time and energy because they listened to the false accusations. Good, caring people will become like the town that got tired of listening to the boy that cried wolf."

http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=13447

Do you support those who make repeated false accusations, or do you think eventually they will find their cries falling on deaf ears because people tire of investigating alarms raised when there is no true cause for alarm and that the people making these fake claims will one day find that when they have a claim which is actually of merit, people have stopped paying attention to them.