Blog 2263 – 12.31.2021

2021 Is Almost A Wrap

Tonight at midnight, revealers around the world will sing out the old year and in the new, but in the cold light of this last day of 2021 let us take stock of all that has transpired, fired, and inspired throughout the year. Barely six days into this new year we saw an angry mob storm the Capital and try to stop the peaceful transition of power. Though this may be a common occurrence in “banana republics” it had never happened before in the two hundred and forty-five year history of the United States of America. That was not, and no matter how some have tried to rewrite history, one of our finest moments.

Comedian and political satirist, Bill Maher, says we have not seen the last of the former occupant of the White House who has never not even yet conceded that he lost the election nor heard the last of that “big lie.” This coming year will make clear if he can successfully make a political comeback or if like Senator Joseph McCarty whose political rise to power was also inspired by same mentor, Roy Cohn, he will just fade into obscurity. I was but a baby when Joseph McCarthy was in his heyday in politics orchestrating one of the former President’s favorite phrases “A political witch hunt.” JM’s was for card-carrying Communists in the government while the one supposedly perpetrated on DJT was “Collusion with the Russian government to steal the 2016 Presidential election.” I recall a line from a TV children’s show, Beanie and Cecil, that came out not long after the McCarty era, in 1959. The bad guy in the show was named Dishonest John and the good guys Beanie and Cecil often used the phrase, “D.J., you dirty guy.”

Roy Cohn taught Joseph McCarthy then later, you know who, the importance of the “big lie” in politics. Another famous political liar wrote in his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) published before his rise to power:

In the 1962 movie, The Manchurian Candidate, the manipulative step- father of the lead character has ambitions of becoming President and is always yelling in his speeches that he knows for a fact that there are X number of card-carrying communists in the U.S. government, just like Joseph McCarthy did, and also just like Joe the number he uses is never the same and no proof is ever offered to substantiate the claim. It was a big lie.

The same folks who believed the “big lie” on January 6th 2021 have also believed by and large that Covid-19 is a big lie, many getting sick and thousands even dying for buying into that lie.

We can only hope the that the truth will out in the coming year, but just as Covid will be with us for years to come, hopefully in some less deadly form, the lies we tell ourselves and that others tell us have a way of lingering long too.

Yeah, Beanie and Cecil called this one right in 1959, “D.J., you dirty guy.” As a disclaimer I must admit my first two initials are also D.J. Everybody lies. I have often remarked that whenever I hear someone say, “I can stand anything but a liar” that I make a mental note that that person has a big problem with telling the truth. Why else would a little lie bother them so much. It is the big lies that cause the real problems not the little sometimes even sweet and loving ones like, “No dear, those slacks do not make your rear look big.” Some truths no one really wants to hear. And though it is true that the truth can indeed set you free it can also sometimes get you killed as can a lie.

Several people died on January 6 due to a big lie and many, many more continue to believe another big lie and die for it too. Beloved, these things ought not to be. Here’s to a happier more truthful New Year.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O9TSiE35PKzupP8NjHY7QDRKHN4HWngE/view?usp=drivesdk

Never Enough