Tag Archives: Truth

Memorial Weekend, 2021

 

Memorial and Loss of Truth

This weekend we fly flags.
There are parades, and remembrances
for heroes that died for our freedom
and all lovers of fairness and democracy.

Yet it is through Republican filibuster
that we will fail to honor a hard-won freedom,
and demonstrate that power wins over values,
and insurrection trumps democracy.

Now we know our freedom is not guaranteed.
We know that democracy may not be permanent.
That power is valued more than the sacrifices
which we celebrate this very weekend.

Our flags fly at half-mast as we grieve the loss.
The loss of truth!

January 6 Commission is a Requirement for Democracy to Survive

We must have a commission on the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.   The truth must come out and be displayed for our democracy to survive.

We had an assault on our government, with the expressed intent to stop our elected officials in the execution of their duty to certify a free and fair election.  The intent was to keep a man in power with truly autocratic tendencies.   His party, the party of Trump, with only Republican outward trappings, not surprisingly, does not want to get at the truth of how this happened.  They do not want their lies and potential criminality exposed.

We need two viable parties.  Our democracy depends on two or more competing platforms and multiple ideas.  The Republican Party cannot opt out of the process.  But if they continue to sell the lie that the election was stolen from Trump;  and if they continue to sell the lie that there was no threat to our democracy on January 6th, then they are disqualifying themselves from the democratic process.

I’ve heard many say, they all lie.  Nope. Not like this.  These lies are fundamentally un-American and un-democratic.  This is an attempt to acquire and maintain power, not on the strength of ideas and character, but on the strength and use of force, backed by lies, and by creating rules that make it difficult for those they do not care for to vote.

I’m still a Republican, but I’m embarrassed by what I continue to see happen to the party of Lincoln.

Power for the sake of power and wealth and no other purpose is not honorable, and not what we should expect of leaders.

Examining our Soles…

I sort of woke with an idea for a poem/blog at 4 this morning….  I was reexamining the math and slope of rumor,  theory, supposition, opinion, fact, and truth, and then the higher unassailable, essential truths.   Things that are called facts if not supported by statistics, as well as testable suppositions and assumptions are not facts, but merely opinions…. some of those are not much more than rumors.  I heard from people, meaning I have no statistics, and it’s unverifiable.  I’ve heard that two out of three people believe this… did you ask three people, not much veracity, but if you sampled 50,000 people and 67% believe this, then two out of three is something to pay attention to… but this is not a truth, it is a fact about opinions, shaped by how the questions are asked and the assumptions represented.  Truth is something that can be proven (even if it’s difficult) to be true all the time, i.e. if A=B, and B=C, then A=C is a theory that can be analyzed and with some difficulty proven to be a truth that is immutable.  But essential truths are more valuable, for they are caused by the examination of our “essence” as in we are human, and thereby not infallible.  This cannot be proven except by a history of existence and examination of our souls, or for that matter our soles… you didn’t think this was going to be totally serious did you?