My Turn: The endurance of truth

STAFF FILE PHOTO 

STAFF FILE PHOTO  STAFF FILE PHOTO

By EDWARD DOWD

Published: 06-30-2025 11:27 AM

Recently an acquaintance told me an unusual story about a local elementary school student being allowed, during class, to identify as (act like) a pet cat. The acquaintance went further to marvel at how the school was allowing the child to use a litter box. He reported that his source (a woman in a local barber shop) had firsthand knowledge of this as her daughter “knew” the female student involved. After making this report my neighbor shook his head in disbelief and said, “can you believe they allow that?”

I explained to this intelligent, educated man I didn’t believe that “they allow that” in any schools in our country. I let him know that the story of schools allowing litter boxes had been circulating on the internet for years. It had also been repeated publicly by no less than 20 Republican politicians including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. Though some of the details of the stories change (many different states and school systems are mentioned) what does not appear (as in the case of the regaling story told by my acquaintance) is details that could serve as some kind of evidence that this ever happened.

For instance, what school? Who was the student? Who was the teacher? Thus far the number of verified cases stands at zero. The fact that teachers are not treating students like cats is not surprising. What is surprising is that otherwise honest, reasonable people can be so misled that they not only neglect to challenge unlikely assertions but also assist in spreading the lies. Most people have the tendency to accept information that is compatible with what they already believe. For example if one is already suspicious about election fraud they may be more open to accept that deceased Americans and non-citizens are voting en mass and determining the outcome of elections. And yet, no one has produced convincing evidence of such a phenomenon such as names, dates, and locations where this is or has happened.

The same is true of every component of the claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.” We have had presidential elections in this country since 1789. As a people we have gone to great lengths to assure a legitimate process. It is the job of the party making the assertion of foul play to prove it, not the other way around. In other words no one needs to prove an election wasn’t “stolen.” When the president says, without offering any details or proof, that protesters in Los Angeles are being “paid” we need evidence. When the president says that Ukraine should never have started a war against Russia he needs to describe when and how. Falling for lies has consequences. During his recent campaign the president proclaimed repeatedly, “countries” were opening up their “prisons, mental hospitals and even insane asylums and sending them here.” The then candidate never offered to identify which countries, which prisons or the identity of any individuals that were storming in.

The truth is that United States borders were never “completely open” under any modern presidency. The president spoke endlessly about “migrant crime” but never acknowledged that undocumented individuals are less likely to commit crimes compared with native born Americans. The fact is that two thirds of undocumented Americans have been in the United States for more than 10 years. Many are contributing positively to our economy. Most sacrificed more to get here and work harder than many of us. A reasonable path to citizenship is the best solution but doesn’t serve the “others are taking your stuff ” narrative pushed by the president. It is much easier to blame our nation’s problems on a powerless group than challenge the privileged among us to contribute more.

What had once been the Republican Party has been replaced by one led by a cruel and dishonest master manipulator. Those that exert energy defending his outrageous assertions cause reputational harm to themselves, and puzzle and alarm reasonable people around them. Trump exhorts his supplicants to distrust “mainstream media” (particularly outlets that are committed to accuracy, corrections, research and meticulous fact checking such as The New York Times). The president prefers that his followers be hermetically sealed off in the world of Breitbart, Fox News, O.A.N . and The Epoch Times. This greatly reduces the chance of facts seeping in. In the end however, like time, truth catches up. It was Edgar J. Mohn that said “Lies have speed but truth has endurance.”

Consider the words of Octavia Butler: “To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.”

Edward Dowd lives in Greenfield.

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