In a recent letter to the News-Press, we were all told to speak the truth. That is very good advice, and we should all take it seriously.
However, the “truth” can be elusive.
For example, the recent hearings by the Select(ed) Committee regarding Jan. 6, 2021 — conducted without even the pretense of due process and therefore devoid of the other points of view and cross examination, among other things — are an unlikely approach to finding the truth. Due process is how civilized nations have sought the truth for centuries, but it sadly is no longer important to a large portion of our population if it interferes with their political objectives.
On the matter of the protesters’ concern on Jan. 6, the truth remains far more complicated than their opposition would like.
For example, while there were numerous lawsuits regarding the issue of the 2020 election, many, if not most, were decided on procedural matters such as latches (like the statute of limitations) and standing rather than on the merits of those cases. In addition, it would be hard to fault a judge for avoiding the chaos that would result from reversing an election unless there was overwhelming evidence, which would be hard to prove as a result of the relaxed rules for identification, such as mail-in voting and extended voting days, and the extensive largely unregulated ballot harvesting.
Those protesters might have had a more persuasive argument focusing on the four-plus years of pervasive lies regarding the Clinton-funded Trump/Russia conspiracy. Such a volume of disinformation on a daily basis could not help but affect some (unknowable) number of voters.
Also, the now-proven cooperation between the Democratic controlled government and big tech, as well as the well-known Democrat bias of the mainstream media, resulted in pervasive censorship of nonconforming viewpoints regarding former President Donald Trump’s behavior, which would likely have resulted in changed votes.
Certainly the fraudulent denial of the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop had clear and significant impacts on the election. We will never know if such impacts were decisive.
So, yes, we should speak the truth, but we must have the integrity to search for it objectively before, unintentionally perhaps, actually spreading lies. A good start would be to access facts and opinions on all sides of an issue rather than becoming a true believer of only one perspective.
William K. Rogers
Santa Barbara
