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PAGE 6A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
Are we entitled to our own facts?
If there’s too much informa
tion thrown at me, is it OK for
me to shut it all out and make
up my own facts?
We are so inun
dated with infor
mation — solid or
unreliable, biased
or not — that a
common emo
tional response to
this overload is
an inner collapse
of logic and a
complete surren
der to whatever
emotion soothes
a hurt or riles us
up.
Our opinions are ours. And
more and more, so are our
facts.
I thought about that when I
heard that basketball star Kyrie
Irving, who went to renowned
Duke University on a scholar
ship, believes the world is flat.
Obviously, what a Cleveland
Cavalier thinks about the shape
of our planet is not important.
But it got widespread atten
tion because it seems indicative
of a bigger issue these days:
the decline of objective truth.
We can’t agree on anything.
And that lack of agreement is
spreading like a virus, even
into the shape of our planet.
I want to ask Irving: What
about the moon, is it flat too?
When we stare at the full moon,
are we seeing the equivalent of
a big pancake or pizza up there,
something round and shallow?
And where is the earth’s bound
ary — maybe an abyss just past
Australia?
And how does the water stay
on a flat surface and not fall
into space?
Of course, some of
Irving’s fellow NBA play
ers chimed in with support.
They didn’t question him.
Lebron James said if he
wants to believe that, then
that’s OK.
But that begs the ques
tion, does objective truth
matter?
If not, then it should be
OK for a referee to call all
of Irving’s shots two-point
ers, not three-pointers.
You may think there’s proof
that Irving was behind the
three-point line, but what is
truth anyway?
If it’s all subjective, then
the referee, and all referees,
have every right to voice their
opinions and discard verifiable
facts.
Who are we to judge their
opinions with our silly rock-sol
id evidence, our foolish video
footage and eyewitnesses?
This basketball analogy may
seem dumb, but I think sports
are a good tool here regarding
objective truth.
We are fiercely partisan in
our sports allegiances.
But we generally concede
that objective truth is necessary
for sports to function and avoid
complete madness and riots.
If a team scores 28 points
and another finishes with 27,
then the team with more points
wins. If your player picks off a
pass and clearly returns it for
a touchdown, then your team
scored and I can’t contest the
fact.
I may argue that a penalty
should have been called, but I
can’t argue that we didn’t just
witness a score, that it was all
somehow not objectively true
that the player just picked off
the pass and ran it back, that
your eyes lied to you, idiot. It’s
fight time then, right?
And obviously, I’m thinking
of politics too, not just sports.
As Trump declares that the
media is the “enemy of Amer
ica" — of which I’m a part
— I think of all the flaws of
the press. And there are so, so
many.
I have written about them,
and will continue to do that.
I think I see far more flaws in
the media than a lot of people,
because I’m in the industry
and thinking about this stuff
constantly.
So I’m not going to whine for
the media.
There are big problems. On
the flip side, there is true bril
liance, too.
"The media” encompasses a
vast array of people.
There is real good and real
bad. That’s a fact. It’s not all
one or the other.
But what really troubles me
is the feeling that there is a war,
not on the media, but on the
concept of objective truth.
Facts: Trump won the elec
tion.
He is president.
He has fierce support and
fierce opposition.
We all see that.
But do facts matter and does
evidence matter? Or, are we
at a point where validity is
entirely an issue of who says
something, not the weight of
the evidence they present?
For instance, when Trump
says he had the biggest elector
al victory since Reagan, that’s
provably untrue.
It’s also a completely unnec
essary fallacy for an election
winner.
He was the winner, yes, but
not the biggest since Reagan.
Why repeatedly walk into such
territory and then get so angry
when called on it?
Why pick a fight on things
that are demonstrably untrue?
There’s no need to make such
an untrue statement, unless,
of course, it’s this: He wants
absolute loyalty to himself at
the expense of objective truth.
Many of his statements strike
me this way, not as policy pro
nouncements, but as tests of
loyalty.
If I say it’s night, it’s night.
If I say it’s day, it’s day. Don’t
believe the “fake media.” Don’t
believe the haters.
Facts are purely team-based,
not evidence based.
Don’t believe your own eyes.
No, believe what I say.
And if you accept one big
untruth, such as the “biggest
victory since Reagan,” you can
more easily accept the next
one. It’s truly brilliant in terms
of garnering loyalty, because it
requires a real emotional com
mitment to overlook these fre
quent casual dismissals of hard
truth, and on the flip side, it’s
utterly infuriating if you aren’t
willing to give him the right to
bend truth.
No doubt, it feels like we’re at
war on the relevance of objec
tive truth in modern America.
This conflict goes far beyond
“the man vs. the media.”
This is a question at the heart
of who we are.
Facts matter.
Or do they?
We are so divided.
We are like a country stumped
on two plus two equals four.
Both sides think the other side
is irrationally screaming five.
And we can’t accept their
answer.
We are like the fans of oppos
ing teams who see the shot but
can’t agree if the foot was in
front of, or behind the three-
point line.
And all we seem capable
of doing is screaming louder
and louder, shouting down our
opponents, as we clench our
fists ready to fight.
We have to find a better path,
a better way to defuse this cul
tural bomb before we walk off
a fake flat earth into a very real
and deep abyss.
Zach Mitcham is editor of
The Madison County Journal,
a sister publication of the Bar-
row News-Journal.
Stephen Ambrose and World War II history
NEW ORLEANS —
The Crescent City has
become a mecca for
World War II
history aficio
nados, owing to
the handiwork of
the late Stephen
Ambrose, whose
books graphi
cally chronicled
the heroes of the
conflict — the
unparalleled and
unprecedented
valor of coura
geous men on
the battlefields
and the dogged toils and
commitment on the home
front, which provided the
material to win the war.
History cannot be
rewritten — only ana
lyzed.
Today, when you savor
the heroism which won
the war, the following
factoid defines the great
ness of America which
we will be hard-pressed
to repeat, hoping we
will never be called on
to make such a sacrifice
again.
In the stock market
crash in 1929, we lost $30
billion. A dozen years
later with the advent of
World War II,
war bond drives
raised $85.7
billion, rough
ly one half
the cost of the
war, reflecting
that America’s
strength has
always rested in
its united peo
ple.
If there is a
third World
War, the stakes
and the consequences
will be of an incompre
hensible circumstance,
which brings to mind the
comment by the gentle
manly Dean Rusk, the
native Georgian, who
became Secretary of
State for presidents Ken
nedy and Johnson: "If
there ever is an all-out
nuclear war there won’t
be any answers," he said.
"There won’t be any
questions!”
Browsing through the
National D-Day museum
was a pleasant remind
er of time spent with
Stephen Ambrose when
he had embarked on his
plans for a D-Day con
ference which would be
followed by his dream of
opening the museum in
downtown New Orleans.
I had read his fasci
nating book, "Pegasus
Bridge," about the Brit
ish paratroopers, who
captured the Benouville
Bridge over the Orme
River Canal.
The initial visit with
Ambrose was followed
by an invitation to attend
a D-Day conference at
a downtown hotel which
attracted Tom Hanks, star
of “Saving Private Ryan”
and Tom Brokow of
NBC, whose book, “The
Greatest Generation,”
became a best seller.
In our conversation,
Ambrose noted that he
had been recruited to
play football at the Uni
versity of Georgia by the
late Wallace Butts, but
chose to stay home and
play for the Badgers of
Wisconsin.
He also enjoyed talking
about Camp Toccoa
and Currahee Moun
tain where the "Band of
Brothers” trained for the
Normandy Invasion.
Ambrose’s most pop
ular book, the “Band
of Brothers,” will be
remembered for this unit
landing at Normandy and
fighting its way to Hit
ler’s Eagle’s Nest.
If you enjoy World War
II history, this read will
undoubtedly fascinate
you.
Ambrose was generous
in introducing an eager
World War II enthusiast
to those whom he knew
and had interviewed.
Average soldiers,
Major John Howard,
whose unit captured the
Pegasus Bridge, glider
pilots, a German panzer
commander who said at
the D-Day conference:
“As a professional sol
dier, I did my job, but as
a human being, I have no
hate.”
This perspective is a
reminder that in this war,
scared teenagers and
others, fighting for their
country, were praying to
the same God.
It has been decades of
inspiration and enlight
enment, visiting ceme
teries, meeting men like
John Howard and walk
ing the beaches of Nor
mandy. I, like many oth
ers, including CNN, was
duped by a guy named
Howard Manoian, who
lived part time at Sainte
Mere Eglise.
For years, Manoian
lied about his war record,
claiming to have para
chuted into his adopted
vacation spot with the
82nd Airborne but was
eventually found out.
There was interaction
with Leonard Lomell,
Army Ranger, who found
the giant 155 MM guns
at Pointe du hoc and
destroyed them, a knock
out blow to the Nazis.
The museum now
offers “The Road to Ber
lin,” and “The Road to
Tokyo,” which graphical
ly defines not just the
heroes but dishonors the
dastardly and demented
men who forced incred
ible horror and hate-fu
eled tragedy on innocent
human beings, namely
Hitler and his henchmen
and Tojo and his cruel
war lords. For all the
heroism of WWII, there
is the reminder that it
brought about the Holo
caust and the Atomic
bomb.
In closing, this flash
back to a conversation
with L-Rod Petty the
Georgia native of Cohut-
ta and passionate Ranger,
who was credited with
killing over 30 Germans
on D-Day at Pointe du
hoc.
When I asked him if
the figures were accurate,
he said in exasperation,
“I don’t know. In war you
do what you have to do."
Then, after a long
pause, he added, “Fur
thermore, what damn
fool would keep count.”
Loran Smith is a col
umnist for the Barrow
News-Journal. He is
co-host of the University
of Georgia football radio
pre-game show.
loran
smith
Buffington continued from 4A
as his tweets. Don’t prove
Trumpites right for being
“liberturds."
Don’t act like the
“Demorats” they say you
are.
Trump will eventually
crumble under the weight
of his own incompetence.
The cracks are already
showing up.
He rode to office on a
wave of hysteria and he
will fall when the hysteria
subsides and reason returns.
The currents of time will
erode his credibility.
Just give him the rope
and he’ll hang himself, no
protesting pink p&%$y
hats will be necessary.
Meanwhile, Democrats,
follow some of your own
advice and build bridges
rather than walls.
Build bridges with mod
erate Republicans and inde
pendents who will even
tually turn on Trump as
he implodes. Build bridges
with Middle America who
fear for their jobs.
Build bridges with voters
who fear Islamic terrorism.
Build bridges with the
business community that
fears a devastating trade
war.
Build bridges with law
enforcement; you’ve lost
their trust.
You will need all of those
people to help the nation
recover when it moves
away from the ugliness of
Trumpism and back to real
Americanism.
Trumpism and its per
verse view of America as a
wasteland of carnage will
fail.
Trumpism’s embrace of
White Nationalism will
fail.
Trumpism’s embrace of
social and economic Isola
tionism will fail. Trumpism
is not Republicanism.
Trumpism is not conser-
vativism.
Trumpism is a cult of
personality. It’s centered
around a narcissistic bil
lionaire who mostly talks
about himself and who is
obsessed with his media
image.
Trump stepped into a
political void — a void
partly created by failed
Democratic policies — and
filled it with a larger-than-
life personality. He won
over voters who thought,
“what the hell do we have
to lose.”
That’s in large part
YOUR fault, Democrats.
YOU failed to stay ground
ed. YOU became a part of
left-wing elites. YOU put
forth a weak candidate who
was worse than Trump in
the minds of many voters.
YOU lost and now should
stay quiet until you fix
your own leaking ship. The
flame of Trumpism will
eventually fade because it’s
being fueled by our worst
instincts rather than our
best.
It is being fueled by fear
rather than courage. It is
being fueled by ignorance
rather than enlightenment.
It is being fueled by lies
rather than facts.
It will collapse.
The question. Demo
crats, is this: Will you stay
stuck in your own narrow
mindset, your own failed
liberal-wonk world? Or
will you return to the polit
ical center and stand ready
to help heal the nation after
Trumpism’s cult of person
ality gets tossed into the
dustbin of history?
Mike Buffington is
co-publisher of Mainstreet
Newspapers. He can be
reached at mike@main-
streetnews.com.
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