Fiction and Fact From Sam’s Almanac

Senator Al Franken delivered his farewell speech on the Senate floor today. He will resign on January 2nd, and his successor, Minnesota Lt. Governor Tina Smith will be sworn in as his successor on January 3rd,

Franken said this:

“As I leave the Senate, I have to admit that it feels like we’re losing the war for truth, Maybe it’s already lost. If that’s what happens, then we have lost the ability to have the kinds of arguments that help build consensus.”

I regret that Franken had to resign. I do so in no way wishing to excuse his conduct that forced the resignation. But in my previous “blogs” on this subject of sexual misconduct, I have argued that the level of punishment should fit the level of crime.

Harvey Weinstein, if the evidence convinces a jury of his peers he should be convicted of rape,  should go to prison. On the other hand, from what I know from the public prints of the transgression of Garrison Keillor, loss of job and livelihood and public denunciation in the extreme seems to me to be too harsh a penalty.

Franken fits somewhere in between. You decide for yourself where.

But Franken’s parting worry that we are “losing the war on truth” is a worry with which he need not be burdened.

We may be fighting a brutal battle at the moment, we may suffer a momentary reversal, but we are not losing the war on truth.

Truth is always a winner.

Facts always beat fiction.

Many years ago there was a popular NBC network morning radio show named “Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club.”

A member of the cast named Sam Cowling would deliver some comedic “pearls of wisdom” in a segment entitled “Fiction and Fact from Sam’s Almanac.”

A sample: Said Sam – “The distance from the head of a fox to its tail is a fur piece.” An indisputable fact.

Let this Sam try my hand at the difference between fiction and fact.

–Everyone thought the Earth was the center of the Universe but as Copernicus learned the fact is the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of our planetary universe.

-Galileo reinforced that truth for which he was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. More than 350 years later in 1992,  Pope Paul II apologized.

-The majority of Admirals in the world’s Naval forces said the airplane would never be a threat to the battleship. The fact is, as Isoroku Yamamato demonstrated one Sunday morning, the airplane rendered the battleship “yesterday’s news.”

Atlanta Constitution Editor Reg Murphy  wrote a column poking fun at the idea that Georgia’s outgoing Governor thought he might be elected President of the United States. The fact is, Jimmy Carter did become the 39th President of the United States.

Senator Inhofe scoffs at the concept of human activity adding dangerously to the planetary warming in this cycle but the fact is, if unchecked it will  destroy a happy and productive way of life for our prodigy if not kill them outright.

-Trump & Company say the new tax bill does not chiefly benefit the wealthy but the fact is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer under this monstrosity of a Robin Hood in reverse tax bill.

Facts will always prevail.

Do not fear, Al, the truth is not lost and will not be lost.

Donald Trump and his merry band of selfish enablers will know defeat along with the condemnation of their fellow Americans and a final placement (as that famous phrase has it) “On the ash heap of history.”

I guarantee it.