Clarifications regarding the article we used in class today.

I’d like to clarify that I showed this article in class today not to prove that historians are the final word on everything, but simply as an instance of how freedom of expression loses meaning sometimes when people like Thompson in this article simply refuse to consider even a credible source as “The Arlington National Cemetery”. Also, to contrast that with Sonny’s need to express himself as an artist through his music, which to him is a necessity. It is a necessity because his music is what allows him to cope with the rest of the bleakness that surrounds him and gives him a sense of control. It is not an idle escape to kill time. Thompson seems to exhibit some random urge to disagree without a convincing reason. My purpose was not at all to go into the political aspect of what this article entails. I am personally skeptical about some facts history claims as accurate since the telling and re-telling of history can be somewhat compared to Dr. Pruss’s discussion of story and plot. It is quite possible that historians lose the actual facts in their re-telling, but that it not what I was discussing in class today. I was mainly pointing to how we are prone to expressing our opinions without much critical thinking which ties in with our discussion about the thin line between freedom of expression and random opinions not grounded in any sort of logic or facts. For instance, the time period in which the action of Baldwin’s story is set is one of segregation and discrimination for the African Americans. Now, this information is de-facto. If someone comes along and says, “I don’t believe any of it”, what can you say? Yes, that person has the right and is entitled to his opinion, but would you consider it a valid opinion? It is also a relevant discussion even in proving our thesis statements for our papers. Of course, all these stories we’re discussing are open to interpretation and there’s no right or wrong way, but there is a rational manner to go about it. That was the main point I was trying to get across since I felt that in discussing Sonny’s need for freedom of expression, this aspect would add to our awareness of another dimension pertaining to the subject matter. Perhaps, it was not the best article to choose.

The article follows below if you wish to read it.

Don't confuse them with facts

To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper's online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth.
Syndicated columnist

I got an e-mail the other day that depressed me.

It concerned a piece I recently did that mentioned Henry Johnson, who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in World War I for single-handedly fighting off a company of Germans (some accounts say there were 14, some say almost 30, the ones I find most authoritative say there were about two dozen) who threatened to overrun his post.
Johnson managed this despite the fact that he was only 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds, despite the fact that his gun had jammed, despite the fact that he was wounded 21 times.

My mention of Johnson's heroics drew a rebuke from a fellow named Ken Thompson, which I quote verbatim and in its entirety:

"Hate to tell you that blacks were not allowed into combat intell (sic) 1947, that fact. World War II ended in 1945. So all that feel good, one black man killing two dozen Nazi, is just that, PC bull."
In response, my assistant, Judi Smith, sent Mr. Thompson proof of Johnson's heroics: a link to his page on the Web site of Arlington National Cemetery. She thought this settled the matter.

Thompson's reply? "There is no race on headstones and they didn't come up with the story in tell (sic) 2002."

Judi: "I guess you can choose to believe Arlington National Cemetery or not."
Thompson: "It is what it is, you don't believe either ... "
At this point, Judi forwarded me their correspondence, along with a despairing note. She is probably somewhere drinking right now.

You see, like me, she can remember a time when facts settled arguments. This is back before everything became a partisan shouting match, back before it was permissible to ignore or deride as "biased" anything that didn't support your worldview.
If you and I had an argument and I produced facts from an authoritative source to back me up, you couldn't just blow that off. You might try to undermine my facts, might counter with facts of your own, but you couldn't just pretend my facts had no weight or meaning.

But that's the intellectual state of the union these days, as evidenced by all the people who still don't believe the president was born in Hawaii or that the planet is warming. And by Mr. Thompson, who doesn't believe Henry Johnson did what he did.
I could send him more proof, I suppose. Johnson is lauded in history books ("Before the Mayflower" by Lerone Bennett Jr., "The Dictionary of American Negro Biography" by Rayford Logan and Michael Winston) and in contemporaneous accounts (The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times). I could also point out that blacks have fought in every war in American history, though before Harry Truman desegregated the military in 1948, they did so in Jim Crow units. Also, there were no Nazis in World War I.
But those are "facts," and the whole point here is that facts no longer mean what they once did. I suppose I could also ignore him. But you see, Ken Thompson is not just some isolated eccentric. No, he is the Zeitgeist personified.

To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper's online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth. We admit no ideas that do not confirm us, hear no voices that do not echo us, sift out all information that does not validate what we wish to believe.

I submit that any people thus handicapped sow the seeds of their own decline; they respond to the world as they wish it were rather to the world as it is. That's the story of the Iraq war.

But objective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it's a wall.
And you shouldn't have to hit it to find that out.