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S.E. Wood What value is truth? You have all seen it by now: The photo of
three New York City firemen hoisting a tattered American flag
atop a piece of steel wreckage from the World Trade Center. The picture said a lot about the courage of
firemen and policemen everywhere, many of whom willingly give
their lives every day in an effort to save and protect others.
And the undying spirit of America - crawling up out of the rubble
and replanting Old Glory as evidence that we may be down, but
we ain't out by a long shot. So the recommendation was made that this inspiring
image of what made America great be perpetuated in bronze; a
statue, capturing the spirit of a recovering America as an inspiration
for generations to come. But then the political correctness groups
got into the act. The three New York City firemen photographed
in the act of raising the Stars and Stripes appeared to be of
Caucasian descent. All three of them! And that would never do.
The dissidents demanded that one of the firemen be cast as an
African-American, and another as an Hispanic. They demanded that
the statue depict a two-thirds minority representation, although
these two minorities make up only 6 percent of the personnel
of the Fire Department of New York. Of course there are other examples of devalued
truth. This month, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, gave a rousing
denunciation of tax cuts, minuscule though they may be, as having
triggered the U.S. economic downturn. The problem is that the
economic recession began six months before the current tax plan
became law, and still, 75 percent of the tax plan will not begin
to take effect until the year 2005! He blames the $40 billion
tax rebate as being responsible for the $150 billion reduction
in the 2001 budget surplus. Fuzzy math? It was reported last week in The
Federalist that "Ted Kennedy's speech on budget cuts was
lacking two minor items. Truth and Fact." So again I ask the question, what value is
truth? It was only a statue, you say. What difference does it
make? It makes a difference, because it was not the truth. And
if the statue was not to be a symbol for truth, then what was
it to be, a symbol for a lie? The plan for the statue has now been scrapped. To be replaced, no doubt, by some inoffensive Picasso-like blob of concrete or steel, saying nothing of the courage and resilience of the people of America, and everything about the dung-heap of political correctness that characterizes what remains of our American culture. · · · |