This blog is late this week because life got in the
way. But, a good time was had by all in
the meantime! One of the life events was
attending a fundraiser for our local Congresswoman Lois Capps. I particularly wanted to attend to thank her
for always voting the way I would have, so that when the call comes out to
contact “your member of Congress”, I don’t have to! Saves me a lot of time.
On my way down to the fundraiser I had stopped to
pick up something at our local pharmacy, and picked up our local freebie
newspaper, New Times. Usually nothing
really upsets me in New Times since we generally share the same political
views, but since I was way early to the fundraiser, I took the time to read
some of the paper. And there, right in
front of God and anybody who read the paper was the statement, “Asked about her
reasons for running, especially on a historically left-wing issue like climate
change in a Republican district against a Republican incumbent…” Wow!! I
found this statement and the one below cut from the same cloth, however, and
believe it or not, I can tie them back to Ronald Reagan and his infamous
statement, “Facts are stupid things”.
At the fundraiser I visited with someone I don’t
often see anymore, Charlotte Alexander.
In our conversation I mentioned that the program of her husband, Dave
Congalton, talk show host, that I remember the most was one, years ago when I
was on my way home, after dark, and driving on a rather lonely stretch of the
highway. (For locals, north of Cayucos.)
All I remember of the program was the caller
from quite a ways south of where I live who commented, “That program, C-Span,
is the most liberal program on TV”.
Since at the time I was trying desperately not to run off the road because
of my shock at such a remark, I couldn’t tell her what Dave’s response
was. Charlotte and I had a nice chat,
and we both moved on to other people.
I’m not sure when a disbelief in facts and science
became so ingrained in our thinking, that someone cannot understand that C-Span
merely televises and records what is actually happening in our governments at
both the state and federal levels.
C-Span is completely factual when it is recording what is being said and
done in our halls of government. It is
not liberal and it is not conservative, it simply is. A fact.
A stupid thing, perhaps, but still a fact.
Climate change is supported by about 95% of all
professional and reputable scientists.
It is a fact. It is neither
liberal nor conservative. It is a
fact. One can argue over the best ways
to combat climate change, but one cannot attribute it to any political
ideology. That is a negation of what can
be proven scientifically. In science,
one collects data (the kind generally is determined by the field of interest
one is involved in), examines the data, and presents a paper on what data was
collected, how it was examined, and how the hypothesis presented in the paper
was achieved. This is a long and
complicated process, and one I have lived with now for some 60 years. The hypothesis presented in the paper that
has been derived from the data, and how the data was analyzed must be able to
be replicated by other scientists, or it is not valid. Climate change has gone through that complicated
system so many times, and has been confirmed to be a fact.
And I apologize to all of the scientists out there
who have had their laborious work simplified to the point of absurdity by the
above paragraph, but then, I am not a scientist. But what I am is someone who understands that
there are many things, seen and unseen, that are true as well. But belief in these things, seen and unseen,
need to have a rational and logical base to them or that belief will lead one
to eventually disbelieve facts. And, by
definition, “a true fact” is a stupid remark, since a fact, by definition, is
true.
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