Charity includes being Honest Enough to Tell Both Sides of the Story

   Three million people have fled Venezuela in the past three years. It is a refugee crisis rivaling that of Syria. As the economy has collapsed, the people have fled.
   Wow. I never knew so many have fled. I'm shocked at the level of the crisis.
   And, is the economic crisis to all be laid at the feet of Socialism? There comes a post, on Facebook, saying 60 years ago, Venezuela was two times richer than China, and four times richer than Japan. It had the world's fourth-ranked economy (first in Latin America). Its health system was said to be the best in the western world. It's currency was second only to that of the United States.
   And?
  "In only 10 years Venezuela was destroyed by socialism," says the meme.
   Say nothing, then, of economic decline before Hugo Chavez took power in 1999. Say nothing of the economic crisis prompting the deadly Caracazo riots in 1989. Yes, the oil industry was nationalized as far back as 1976, but that was only after an oil crisis was already underway.
   Say nothing of the successes under Chavez.
   My point is this: Too often we smear the truth. We take our side of the story, and tell that side, not both sides. Our cause should not be the side of the right, or the left, but the side of truth.
   Yes, great evidence exists socialism failed Venezuela -- caused much of its downfall. I can wonder but what if free enterprise were unleashed on all of Venezuela's economy, the nation might figure out how to get its oil out of the ground -- it has the largest reserves in all the world -- but is socialism, alone, responsible for Venezuela's economic demise?
   Unless Socialism goes back further than I am aware of in that country, it is not all to blame.
   We speak of how we are too divided as a nation. We speak of how this is one of the greatest of all our problems. Well, if we would not be so divided, we must learn to be more honest than to just tell one side of the story. If we would not be so divided, we must learn to be more charitable one with another, for charity certainly includes giving the other side its due.

(Note 12/20/18: I studied Venezuela's economy more the next night. Telling both sides of the story is important, but telling what you learn after your post was published is also important. The principle that you tell both sides of the story remains, but the idea socialism might not be the only dominant, noticeable thing that led to Venezuela's economic decline might be wrong.)