It has long been said that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth ever catches up to it. But the Holy Bible serves as age-old proof that the truth will eventually come out. The latest example of mankind’s embarrassing blunders has just been put on glaring display by our government.

Shirley Sherrod was brutally demonized recently for remarks that she – a black woman – made at an NAACP gathering earlier this year. It seems a carefully edited tape of her remarks ignited a racial firestorm, one that was fanned with equal cunning by despicable “political activists,” and our entire nation now stands red-faced and seething.

You see, the truth finally came out, a complete tape proving the edited version was totally out of context. President Obama – also black – made his apology call into a photo-op. Our vaunted Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, has proven himself to be a half-cocked dolt, and the NAACP, perhaps the most racist organization this country has ever known, has also rescinded its evil blather.

Well, the nation better brace up because we are getting ready to offer another most-embarrassing apology. Only this time, our national leaders will have to apologize for – of all things – demanding an apology. In the wonderful way that truth moves – slowly and surely – there is mounting evidence, it quite conclusive, that the Congressional smear of Toyota six months ago is also poppycock.

The Wall Street Journal hinted that, upon careful and exhaustive study, the sticking accelerators that captivated our nation of naysayers and hate mongers may not be true. The article said “black boxes” recovered give a vastly different scenario of what really occurred.

The editor of Automotive News, Keith Crain, wrote there is “overwhelming evidence” that instead of sticking accelerators, “the drivers of the cars involved had their foot on the accelerator when they thought it was the brake.”

Crain further explained, “The faster they went, the more they pushed on the (gas) pedal, not realizing it wasn’t the brake. They believed they were depressing the brake pedal, but they were wrong.”

Forbes Magazine, in an article that castigates a frothing media, revealed that of the 93 deaths alleged by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there is now irrefutable evidence that the true number has been reduced down to five.

That’s right, back in January when a haughty and union-fueled Congress demanded the president of Toyota appear personally to be lashed before live television cameras, it may well have been a greater injustice than was just doled out by the administration on a black woman who common logic alone will affirm would have never chastised her own race in an NAACP speech. Mother of pearl!

America has become a nation so eager to slander, to fault, to smear, that the only thing we do better is “passing the buck.” When agriculture’s Tom Vilsack stood tight-lipped to ruefully admit he demanded a very public resignation before he had all the facts, his was a brilliant example of governmental ineptness and our national zeal to point out how everybody else stumbles.

Another example? President Obama, recently on today’s “Good Morning America,” said ever so slickly, “(Vilsack) jumped the gun, partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on YouTube or a blog and everybody scrambles.”

The “scrambling” president also said, “If there’s a lesson to be drawn from this episode, it’s that rather than us jumping to conclusions and pointing fingers at each other, we should all look inward and try to examine what’s in our own hearts and, as a consequence, I think we will continue to make progress.”

Once again, mother of pearl!

The impending Toyota apology (hold your breath) could be even worse. We all know that Toyota, which sold more cars in the United States last month than any other brand, has as its biggest competitor General Motors. We also know that General Motors’ largest majority stockholder is the Federal government, or, better put, “We, the people.”

The largest minority stockholder of General Motors is the United Auto Workers union, which we have learned since the Congressional roasting of Toyota took place has contributed many millions of dollars to the war chests of those same Senators and members of Congress who hurled the most rotten fruit during the debacle.

So what must we now do? Offer Toyota “a unique position” like the shameful Sec. Vilsack just laid at Shirley Sherrod’s feet? Should we tell Toyota’s Akio Toyoda to please come back to Washington so we can give him back the $16 million fine we accepted with such a sneer?

I can promise that in the coming weeks and months you are going to find that when “we, the people” pull the trigger before we know all the facts it reflects on a type of country we don’t want to be.

I can also promise that those of us who still strive to “be better,” like the 250,000 Americans who work for Toyota, aren’t going to tolerate people like the bumbling Tom Vilsack, the NAACP, or vindictive unions for much longer, either.