That’s the slogan of New Hampshire’s only statewide newspaper, the Union Leader. It’s a truncated quote from one of our proudest native sons, Daniel Webster; the full quote is “there is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange” — an early version of “truth is stranger than fiction.”
It’s a great quote, and reminds me of a few others: “…and the truth shall set you free.” “Truth will out.”
The sad thing is, there are a lot of people today who are afraid of the truth. Who are afraid of people who speak simple truths, who dare to recite indisputable facts, and condemn them for speaking them. Who say that to acknowledge certain things is “aggressive” or “hostile” or, even in some cases, “warmongering.”
Here are a few examples:
- The Republic of China (alias “Taiwan”) is a free democracy, a thriving nation with one of the most dynamic economies in the world, that is routinely threatened with obliteration (both political and actual) by the Communist dictators of mainland China. They have been far, far better friends to the United States (and the rest of the Western world) than we have been to them, and deserve not only our recognition as a free and independent nation, but the United Nations as well — we have kowtowed to the tyrants of Beijing for over 30 years over this.
- The government of Iran has been waging war against the United States for almost 30 years, to various degrees. Currently, in Iraq, their agents and members of their armed forces are not only aiding and abetting the insurgents who are killing our soldiers and Iraqi civilians every day.
- The two factions of the duly-elected government of the Palestinian Authority have been, both actively and passively, attacking the state of Israel on an almost-daily basis. Rockets fired across the border and suicide bombers (attempted and successful) are an almost daily occurrence.
- The nation of Lebanon is almost utterly subjugated by Iran and Syria. Iran works through its proxies, Hezbollah (who have been waging war against Israel), and occupies a large portion of Lebanon. Syria, more directly, controls another large portion, and maintains its control through assassinations and other terrorist attacks against any Lebanese they perceive as a threat to their control.
- The vast majority of current wars and other conflicts in the world involve Muslims on at least one side — and almost always as the aggressor.
- When one hears about a terrorist attack and/or atrocity going on in the world, the odds are considerably greater than even that the perpetrator will call themselves Muslims.
I don’t think there is anything overtly political or partisan about any one of those statements. They’re uncomfortable truths (some might even call them “inconvenient truths”), but they are true nonetheless.
And for some reason, those who state these simple truths are often labeled as “warmongers” by those who demand we abide by polite fictions and not acknowledge reality.
