By Terry Allen
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
Big Mama didn’t raise us to be reckless with our words. She used to say, “If you don’t have time to say it right, you better make time to say it twice.” And back then, I thought she was just talking about manners. Now I know—she was talking about responsibility.
Because in this fast-moving world, too many people open their mouths before they open their minds.
We are living in a time where speed is celebrated more than substance. Everybody wants to be first. First to comment. First to react. First to go viral. But Big Mama would lean back in that chair on the porch and remind you—being first don’t mean you’re right.
That lesson showed up loud and clear with Nick Cannon. Words were spoken—calling Democrats “the party of the KKK” and praising political narratives without full context—and backlash came just as fast.
Now let’s be clear: history is layered, complex, and requires study. But when you throw out fragments of truth without context, you don’t educate—you inflame. And when you don’t do the work upfront, the correction will come—publicly.
But Nick isn’t alone.
We just saw it again with Chilli, who had to walk back a social media post tied to misinformation and clarify she didn’t intend to support what people thought she did.
Same pattern. Different platform.
Speak fast. Clarify later.
Big Mama would call that “doing it over.”
And that’s exactly what John Wooden was getting at. Rushing leads to mistakes. Doing it right is a choice. Doing it over is the consequence. You either slow down and build it with care, or life will slow you down and make you rebuild it under pressure.
And here’s the cost nobody talks about—when you redo it in public, it costs more. It costs credibility. It costs trust. It costs influence.
Big Mama would say, “You talking loud… and saying nothing.”
Truth requires work. Real truth—not half-truth, not headline truth, not social media snippet truth—demands that you dig, listen, and understand before you speak. Too many folks are inflating narratives, telling half the story, and then acting surprised when the full story shows up and corrects them.
Shame on that.
Because when you carry a voice—especially a public one—you carry weight. And weight requires discipline.
Big Mama didn’t have Google, but she had discernment. She didn’t have a platform, but she had wisdom. And she knew once words leave your mouth, you don’t get to control where they land.
So here’s the lesson.
Slow down. That urgency to be first will cost you if you’re not grounded in truth. Do the homework—because surface knowledge has a way of exposing you when the spotlight gets brighter. Check the facts, not just the ones that fit your point, but the ones that challenge it. And choose your words like they matter… because they do. Once they leave your mouth, they carry weight you can’t pull back.
And if you don’t? Life will give you another chance—but it won’t be on your terms. It will come with correction, with consequence, and with a cost that didn’t have to be paid in the first place.
Because at the end of the day, there may never be enough time to do it right the first time—but there will always be enough time to do it over. The real question is… what will it cost you when you do?
Big Mama already told us.
The porch been speaking.
The problem is… too many people ain’t listening.
Terry Allen is an NABJ award-winning Journalist, DEI expert, PR professional, and founder of the charity – Vice President at FocusPR, Founder of City Men Cook, and Dallas Chapter President of NBPRS.org
