Nothing But The Truth Full Book Pdf Download

[Violette Taps]

Theseare not normal times. We seem to be living through a challenge to American democracy, and a concurrent spike in anti-Semitism and other forms of overt prejudice and racism, that I never expected to see in my lifetime. I believe that we are also witness to an overturning of fundamental values, Jewish and American, that I thought until recently were widely shared. I now understand that these commitments are not only up for grabs in our country but are actually under siege.

Among the most important of those once-sacrosanct values is the commitment to truth. Institutions of higher education like JTS cannot function without that commitment. Science, history, and every other academic discipline I can think of presume it axiomatically. Telling and seeking the truth has always been a central value of Judaism, and not only Judaism. The well-being of religious and ethnic minorities like the Jews particularly depends upon devotion to getting the facts right, lest those who wield might hold unchallenged sway over the depiction of how things are and should be.

Open even a reputable newspaper these days and it is distressingly obvious that the expression of opinion and values is not limited to the editorial and op-ed pages. Flip the channels for cable news, and it is equally obvious that you are being told only what someone thinks you want to hear.

Search for a politician who will publicly admit that his or her party might be mistaken in its positions or policies, or that the leaders of other parties might have right or good sense on their side, and you generally search in vain. Listen to senior government officials minimize or deny the facts of global warming and climate change, and you realize that science, too, is now being undermined, even mocked, in the service of politics and ideology.

Listen to the anti-Semitic narrative of worldwide Jewish domination, or white nationalist lies about the dangers posed by immigrants and people of color, or alleged histories of Middle East conflict that distort or deny facts that many of us have lived through or witnessed with our own eyes, and you understand viscerally why we must never stop insisting on the value of facts or allow them to be replaced by mere opinion.

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We're living with things that, I admit, never occurred to me could happen here, in this country. When I was assuring high school history students how impregnable our government was to any kind of collapse, let alone takeover, it was all so clear.

We can't even be sure that Supreme Court judgeships will be filled if the party in power in the Senate refuses to launch the process. After all, we've learned the hard way that we have no remedy if the congressional leadership refuses to act.

So now here we are: "The government of the people, for the people, and by the people" has turned into a government of tweets and executive orders. The presidency has become a one-man-band. And this country becomes more and more just like every other Third World country: at the mercy of a so-called "strongman leader" held up by a pseudo-Congress and a staff of unvetted lackeys. And, of course, by the Brownshirts who, we're told, are saving democracy from the Democrats by fueling riots in the streets in Portland, Oregon.

Media fact checkers confirm that Donald Trump told 20,000 lies in his capacity as president of the United States by July 9. By the end of every presentation, Trump has riddled his own positions, weakened his own arguments.

As The New York Times editorial board in September 2018 wrote, Trump is "a president with no clear relation to the truth." Early on in his presidency, journalists defined the situation as "hyperbole," then "exaggeration," later, "disinformation" until only "lie" could possibly describe his continued refusal to tell the truth.

And here's the saddest concern of all: The American public doesn't seem to care. Lying has become a political joke. "All politicians lie," the voters say now. And maybe that's true. But does that mean that it should be ignored?

With every lie, political integrity grows dimmer and dimmer, the country becomes a bigger and bigger joke, our foundation for the future gets slimier and slimier, our hope for the lives of our soldiers sent into questionable wars gets slimmer, and the basis for the hopes of our citizens gets thinner and thinner.

As a people, we have, it seems, lost all sense of connection between the nature of truth and the character of leadership, the need for public information and the pallor of political disinformation. Which may be exactly why we are sitting here up to our neck in COVID-19: We have no validation, no assurance that the leadership we rely on is really valid leadership or not.

What kind of moral metric can we possibly proffer the rest of the world? What kind of credible character can we seriously hold up as trustworthy, as worthy of international credence, as sign of our own authenticity?

We have no defined national efforts like the rest of the world, who are all working together to take care of one another. Instead, we have 50 large villages acting independently, trying their best to hang on, to survive, to rise up again and, of course, to survive more lies. And more lies. And still lies. And fake polls. And all-too-real executive orders. And 50 states on their own.

The new Catechism of the Catholic Church has a statement on lying and serious sin. It reads: "The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity."

From where I stand, it seems that we ourselves each have a moral question to answer: Are 5.4 million plague-ridden unprotected citizens enough damage to call lying about the seriousness of their situation a mortal evil? Are 170,000-plus deaths, many of older people in institutions meant to protect them, enough of a breach of justice to consider a government that would do that mortally immoral?

Perhaps, most important of all, is our own blas approach to the effect of public lying our own immoral complicity in a public sin? And if so, how much time will it take before it undercuts the character of the whole nation?

Game six exposed the hole and now it needed filled. Red Sox fans did not yet know it, but a quick fix that filled the breach and eased the pain was on its way. Two nights later in the Shea Stadium press box, as Mets fans celebrated and Sox fans started a winter hangover, a twisted logic to explain their loss rapidly evolved.

Ford believed his business success qualified him for national office. He lusted for a bully pulpit to lead a return to the traditional values he helped destroy. In 1916 the Democratic Party placed his name in nomination for the presidency and in 1918 Ford narrowly lost a campaign for the U.S. Senate representing Michigan.

Yet his International Jew series was intellectually bogus, based on hate, innuendo, rumor, distortion and lies. In regard to Harry Frazee, the Episcopalian and Mason, the Independent was, in fact, dead wrong on all counts.

In 1916 Harry Frazee produced a hit play entitled Nothing But The Truth, which eventually ran for 332 performances. The cleverly written comedy (later a film of the same name starring Bob Hope) featured an artifice as old as the theater itself, for the thinly veiled morality play considered the consequences of always telling the truth. The play struck an immediate chord with New Yorkers, for it took place in a brokerage house at a time period when even tradesmen and clerks were beginning to dabble in the stock market.

The story of Harry Frazee and the Red Sox should have come to an end. After his death in 1929 Frazee should have become a footnote in Red Sox history like previous owners Charles Somers, William Killilea, James McAleer and Joe Lannin.

The portrait Lieb paints is shrewd, yet once one is aware of it, unmistakable. He turns Frazee into a caricature with obvious Jewish overtones. [Note: For space reasons, much of the following six or eight paragraphs were excised by my editors at the time of publication.]

Over the last 3 years since contact ceased with my birth family, I have wholeheartedly wanted to live. I have felt liberated. An intense pressure has lifted. I am learning about myself and what I need to stay well. My moods are stable. I feel safe and I feel optimistic about the future.

But when I close my eyes at bedtime, the ghosts of my past visit me. When that happens I wake in the middle of the night, sweat drenched, boiling hot, throat parched. The dreams are so real and steeped in threat. My heart is hammering as I try and orientate myself, prove to myself I am safe.

There was truly no malice in my observations. I was deeply anxious and worried about them. I naively believed I could help them, by changing them. In fact I tried to force my help upon them, thinking I could take control and solve all their ills. Looking back I must have irritated the hell out of them, but all I wanted was to fix our family. Instead I was seen as a do-gooder, a trouble maker, for holding up a mirror that they refused to look in.

For 45 years I lived in a thankless cycle of trying to please them, to ingratiate myself; prove my worth. I loved them fiercely because my brain told me I must. I jumped through hoops of fire trying to please them. I spent hour after hour, listening and advising though my advice was usually ignored. I gave them gifts, not just on special occasions but simply to make them feel good. I loaned them money and took out loans on their behalf. I created cvs, helped with job applications. I brokered truces with their partners and took them on holidays with my husband and our children. I hosted family gatherings, organised milestone birthday parties. I was a shoulder to cry on, a constant.

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