Just the FACTS M'am....

FACTS OR FICTION

I had a conversation with a gentleman the other day who made it clear that he did not agree with anything I said because I voted for Hillary Clinton. The way he expressed it was, “I have my facts and you have yours and we will never agree.”

I had taken issue with his statement that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had allowed four Americans to die in Benghazi and told troops on their way to, “Stand down,”and that they had blamed the attack on an anti-Muslim video not terrorism, and that, “Hillary should be in jail and Obama impeached!” his solution to the matter.

I argued that Libya was a failed state where intelligence was difficult to impossible to come by, and that it was not fair to blame Clinton or Obama when it was the terrorists who deserved it, “Did we blame George Bush for 9-11 where 4000 died on his watch, or Ronald Reagan for the 250 Marines who died in Beirut?” I asked him. He was man enough to admit that he would “…give me that,” but headed off soon thereafter. I gave his statement about “facts” the most thought over the next few days.

He said he had his facts and I had mine and characterized this as the essential problem. What I would say to him today would be along these lines: “There is no such thing as “your facts” and “my facts.” There are FACTS. Period. What differs is what people BELIEVE about those facts, they either accept them or not, but the facts don’t change, they are what is REAL. It’s people opinions about those facts that vary.”

Here’s one example: Global Warming /Climate Change. A fact , or series of facts as far as I am concerned, and ones I believe in. The last three summers have been the warmest on record, photographs of glacier retreat, and shrinking polar icecaps, data on warming of the oceans, the death of coral reefs in the Southern Hemisphere, the increase in the number of severe weather events- hurricanes, nor’easters, tornadoes, floods, droughts, wildfires all directly observable, and measureable.

As for the claims by some that the climate is NOT changing or if it is, it’s not due to anything man has done, well too many of these claims are put forth by people with their own private agendas, fossil fuel proponents for example. They have so much invested in this industry that they have to deny that their products; coal, oil, and natural gas are contributing to climate change, and pump untold dollars into convincing others as well. People believe what they WANT to believe, that is the problem; following the “facts” that fit your belief system rather than adjusting your beliefs to fit the facts.