‘Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World’

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In today’s USA it seems facts don’t matter in a world without candor.

In this essay for the National Archives, a University of Wisconsin professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture — Stephen Lucas — includes some thoughts on Jefferson’s line: To prove this [the king’s tyranny], let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

This sentence is so innocuous one can easily overlook its artistry and importance. The opening phrase–“To prove this”–indicates the “facts” to follow will indeed prove that George III is a tyrant. But prove to whom? To a “candid world”–that is, to readers who are free from bias or malice, who are fair, impartial, and just. The implication is that any such reader will see the “facts” as demonstrating beyond doubt that the king has sought to establish an absolute tyranny in America. If a reader is not convinced, it is not because the “facts” are untrue or are insufficient to prove the king’s villainy; it is because the reader is not “candid.””This sentence is so innocuous one can easily overlook its artistry and importance. The opening phrase–“To prove this”–indicates the “facts” to follow will indeed prove that George III is a tyrant. But prove to whom? To a “candid world”–that is, to readers who are free from bias or malice, who are fair, impartial, and just. The implication is that any such reader will see the “facts” as demonstrating beyond doubt that the king has sought to establish an absolute tyranny in America. If a reader is not convinced, it is not because the “facts” are untrue or are insufficient to prove the king’s villainy; it is because the reader is not “candid.”

— Read More: “The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence”

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27 thoughts on “‘Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World’”

  3. some candid thoughts in verse

    Happy Fourth of July, Twenty-Twenty-Three. We survived another year. How many are left? Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender

  4. more “may the fourth be with you” music and reminiscent of a favorite always sung with glee on the high school band bus, here’s an NPR story about the rousing National Emblem March

    I could sing a smidgen of Edwin Eugene Bagley’s National Emblem before I even knew what a march was.
    As a very young grade-schooler, I heard a little ditty — “Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole” — on the playground, but I was blissfully unaware of either the famous march it was attached to or the naughty lyrics that followed. It was just a fun line to warble now and again. (If you don’t know it, the line corresponds to the short melismatic phrase first heard 44 seconds into this United States Air Force Heritage of America Band performance.)
    Who can say how the words and the music became linked — surely not by Bagley himself, but you never know. In the 1860s, before he reached his teens, Bagley toured as a singer and comedian with a troupe called Leavitt’s Bellringers. Later, he took up the cornet and trombone and eventually played with the Boston Symphony.
    Bagley wrote many marches, but none that captured American pride like the National Emblem. With its bright beat and clever transformation of The Star Spangled Banner it became a favorite, still heard often on the Fourth of July.
    But Bagley wasn’t happy with his National Emblem at first. He wrote it on tour in 1902 on a train, the story goes. Dissatisfied with the ending, he threw it in the trash, but his band members rescued it and surprised him with a performance at their next concert. He sold the copyright for $25.

    National Emblem is a march composed in 1902 by Edwin Eugene Bagley. Performed by the USAF Heritage of America Band.

  5. a rare these days happy story in the guardian and one more thing to celebrate on the Fourth:

    ‘You’re able to vote now’: Minnesota Democrats pass raft of progressive reforms | Minnesota | The Guardian

    […]
    During the same session that the felony re-enfranchisement bill passed, the state passed the Democracy for the People Act, which, among other reforms, allows 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote, establishes automatic voter registration in some state agencies, requires voting materials be available in the three most commonly spoken languages in the state, and penalizes voter intimidation and lies.
    Having passed the collection of voting legislation, the state has turned to implementation of the measures. Groups involved with the passage of Restore the Vote say that getting the more than 50,000 newly eligible voters registered will be the most significant challenge. Ja’Naé Bates, a minister who organized with other faith leaders in the Restore the Vote coalition, has trained canvassers to help people register to vote, knocking doors in her own St Paul neighborhood. Bates said the coalition’s voter registration drive is already taking place in churches, barbershops, and community gathering places.
    [continues]

  6. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/04/business/texas-sexually-explicit-books-law/index.html

    “Under the ‘Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources’ Act, or the READER Act, vendors that sell books to Texas public schools must assign every title that describes or portrays sexual conduct one of two labels: sexually explicit or sexually relevant.”

    “The law defines sexually explicit books as those containing sexual content that is “patently offensive,” explained in state law as anything that affronts “current community standards of decency.” These books will be banned from school campuses.”

    “The following could all be considered vendors under the READER Act, according to Conn, as they all sell books: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, a publisher like Penguin Random House, a wholesaler like Conn’s Classroom Library Company and an independent bookstore like BookPeople.”

    “BookPeople CEO Charley Rejsek said she has time to read about 30 books a year — but doesn’t have the time to read and rate the thousands of books she might sell to a school, nor does she have the money to pay someone else to.”

    “What might be sexually relevant to one vendor could be sexually explicit to another, and yet another vendor may not feel like the book needs to be rated in either of those categories,” Robinson said.

    “Patterson said he believes “capitalism is the path forward here” and that financially, vendors “have an incentive to figure this out.”

    “The fact that no book vendor really understands the ramifications or our liability when this thing goes into effect — there’s just going to be fewer books in schools,” Jordan said, “which is not good for anyone.”

  7. https://reasonstobecheerful.world/west-texas-dark-skies-mcdonald-observatory/

    “We know the universe is expanding, and expanding at an accelerated rate,” McDonald Observatory Dark Skies Initiative Coordinator Stephen Hummel explains. “But we don’t know what’s causing it.”

    “Scientists call whatever is causing the universe to expand “dark energy.” To study the phenomenon, scientists need the sky to be — as the name implies — very, very dark.”

    “Oil and gas industry leaders who have had the chance to talk to Hummel almost universally see the collaboration as a win-win. Dark-sky friendly lighting makes facilities safer — and also helps the observatory’s mission to reduce light pollution.”

  9. In three years USA celebrates 250 years, and the planning has already begun. Not that long when you consider the Roman and Ottoman empires lasted more than twice as long. But we are the oldest Democracy in the world, which is scary in a way: For such a relatively young system of government we’re already the oldest? Makes you realize it could end anytime, especially with one of the two major political parties trying to shut it down under a dictator wannabe.

  10. Happy 4th, everyone! Last night, not too far from where I live, there was a fireworks explosion at a private residence. 1 person was killed and 9 other people were injured. I heard many loud explosions last night. Not sure if I heard that one, though. Some sounded as though all the fireworks were going off all at once. I read this morning that disctrict 2 residents here have filed paperwork to recall the far-right candidate that was elected to represent their disctrict. Fingers crossed this actually works. Going back to yesterday’s discussion, the daughter of one of my close friends moved to Copenhagen last year. She loves it there. Her husband has a very good job, so they moved there for his job. The people there don’t have near the hangups we have here. Public restrooms are unisex. They have floor to ceiling doors. Each restroom has it’s own private sink. What I think is cool is that she posts pictures and it looks like she went some place fabulous, but she was just walking around Copenhagen.

  11. Happy 4th everyone!  It won’t stop raining here…  but at least it’s not tornadoes or fires.
     
    BiD…  you should know that the source you used in your link to NHerites voting for RFKjr… The Boston Herald…  is a right wing rag.  

  13. Happy 4th. It’s sunny, very warm and muggy. I almost feel like I’m back in Bam, but not nearly as hot. Mrs P wants to try grilled peaches and watermelon- a culinary adventure I’m down for.

    Congratulations Poobah – great milestone. Couldn’t make much of a better self improvement decision.

    So, we got a call from an old friend who’s the wife of an old friend and the parents of LP’s oldest friend. Been trying to get in touch for a couple years on and off with no return call. We attributed it to pandemic malaise. Well, she called Saturday and told us her husband (my age) is suffering with Alzheimer’s and over the past 2 years has become unmanageable for her at home. Man is brilliant, is a PhD counseling psychologist and has management education of some description, managed the hospital’s psych services for 20 years and now has lost any consistent connection with with the world around him and his short term memory. And he’s angry all the time at her. They made financial decisions that seemed reasonable at the time – pay off home, pay off most debt, that sort of thing- but now she realizes they omitted making provisions for illness not covered by Medicare after retirement. The point is that here’s 2 professionals who made a very good living now facing how to deal with long term specialized care without having to go into retirement in 10 years (her) without becoming destitute. Not sure how they’ll manage it. Bummer.

  15. RR – Glad to hear it!
    CC – Glad to hear it! 
    Happy 4th to all!  May y’all still have all of your fingers on the the 5th. 

  17. Well, i don’t know how to get cocaine so i’ll have to try something else 🤔 
     
    🥁 

  20. Happy 4th to all and sundry.  Son and grandson did the national pastime of baseball last night.  Tonight they will do fireworks which I always dread as bad for the furry types and the environment.

     

  21. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/04/tech/biden-administration-social-media-companies-communication-covid-censorship/index.html

    “A federal judge on Tuesday ordered some Biden administration agencies and top officials not to communicate with social media companies about certain content, handing a win to GOP states in a lawsuit accusing the government of going too far in its effort to combat Covid-19 disinformation.”

    “The injunction notes that the government can still communicate with the companies as part of efforts to curb illegal activity and address national security threats.”

    “The agencies and officials, Doughty said, are prohibited from “specifically flagging content or posts on social-media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

    “Doughty, a Donald Trump appointee, noted in the lawsuit that social media companies “include Facebook/Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok,” as well as a number of other online platforms.”

    I would argue that a deadly pandemic, and the Russian-Republican attempts to spread disinformation, posed a threat to national security.

    Whelp, it’s time for a grassroots movement of volunteers to look for garbage to report. These companies don’t want to fix the algorithm. They don’t want to filter out hate speech and lies that could kill folks. They are aiding and abetting those who would destroy democracy.

  22. Was the cocaine-like substance found at the WH Don Junior’s leftovers?  His gargoyle’s, maybe? A plant from a tRUMPsky-ite working on the inside of the Biden administration? 

  23. bId – the stuff was found in the public area.
    Bink – the important thing is to cut down, and eventually to nothing.  19 years ago I quit.  Even now I will get the desire to do some nicotine.  I had to do it the hard way, cold turkey.  Pure hell for the first year, eventually reaching where I am today.  Usually only happening when I am having flashbacks now.

  24. Jamie – They are starting to mix drone shows with fireworks, even down here.  My neighbors and I planned to walk a short ways away to see them.  It’s hot and folks dropped out as the day wore on, until it was just me.  I’m grateful they all caved, because I didn’t want to go nor did I want to back out on others. Win-win. They should really move the 4th of July to a cooler month down here. I said what I said.

  25. While I no longer live in his district I still think of Reverend Cleaver as my congressman. His email sent out today is one of the reasons. I’ve cut and pasted the whole thing, I doubt if he will mind.

    Hello Neighbor,
    I write today not as a mayor, pastor, or Congressman, but as a proud, patriotic American. Across the country, Americans will spend today with friends and family attending parades, eating hot dogs, and viewing fireworks. As habitual as these actions may feel, they represent the enduring promise of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness that our founding fathers made 247 years ago.

     
    Whether you have called America home for 2 or 200 years, we live in the same communities, dream of the same successes, and pledge allegiance to the same flag. As our founders signed the Declaration of Independence, Genevan American philosopher Pierre Eugene du Simitiere proposed a motto for our new nation: e pluribus unum or ‘out of many, one.’ This creed remains as accurate now as it was nearly two and a half centuries ago. Differences in faith, ideology, race, or ethnicity do not divide us; instead, they define us. At no point did the founders view our country as a monolith. Each diverse part of our country plays an integral role in the whole. Out of a plethora of backgrounds and opinions comes one American people. The promise of America lives not in complacent agreement; instead, it thrives with compromise and thoughtful disagreement.
     
    Indeed, we must confront our nation’s history and its modern systemic impacts. However, it is equally important to recognize the accomplishments possible when we put our heads down and work together. To quote a fellow resident of Missouri’s Fifth District, President Harry S. Truman, “America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” It inspires me to see so many changemakers in our community. Through the joys, failures, and successes lived by generations of Americans, one thing remains constant: Our neighbors’ devotion to preserving our past and protecting our future keeps the American dream alive.
     
    Friends, I leave you with seven thoughtful words, “America is great because America is good.” Even our most intense conflicts spawn from the privilege of disagreement. In no other place can people engage in such passionate debate and remain united in their reverence for the greater good.
    Have a safe and relaxing Independence Day.

    Sincerely,
    Emanuel Cleaver, II
    Member of Congress

  26. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/04/politics/ron-desantis-donald-trump-steve-cortes/index.html

    “A spokesman for a super PAC backing Ron DeSantis acknowledged that the Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate is “way behind” in national polling and is “fighting uphill” to defeat former President Donald Trump in the 2024 primary.”

    “If we do not prevail, we will make President Trump better for having this kind of primary. I believe in competitive, well-fought primaries,” Cortes added.

    Why, it’s almost like this is just another Republican sham.

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