Msgr. Paul V. Garrity
It has been said that a lie can make its way around the world before truth can put its pants on in the morning!
It has been said that new immigrants to our country are poisoning the blood of red-blooded Americans and threatening to take over our cities. History has shown, however, that new immigrants bring enthusiasm, talent and creativity along with a capacity for hard work and perseverance. These qualities are the same ones that are the foundation of our immigrant nation. Most Americans are second, third or fourth generation immigrants. Remove all the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of immigrants from our national census and we have only a skeleton of a country left.
It has been said that soldiers, sailors and marines who are captured in combat, wounded or killed in action are suckers. Going back as far as the 18th century, citizens who put on the uniforms of our nation have been respected and admired for their military service. Those who paid the ultimate price or who were wounded in battle have always been seen as heroes. Without the sacrifices of courageous citizens, the United States of America would not exist.
It has been said that Abraham Lincoln should have negotiated with the slaveholders of the South and avoided the Civil War. Not only did the so-called slave states want to preserve the institution of slavery, but they also wanted slavery to be listed as something good not evil. Negotiating a way out of the Civil War would have left thousands of people as slaves without the basic rights that all other people enjoy. The fact that slavery in America was reserved to Black people made it a racist institution with no redeeming quality.
It has been said that the war in Ukraine can be settled within 24 hours if the will to do so is present in the right places. Poland, Estonia and Latvia do not want to be part of Greater Russia ever again and fear the consequences of a Russian victory in Ukraine. Settling the war in Ukraine in 24 hours can only be possible if the United States caves into Russian aggression. Halting Russian aggression in Ukraine is the only thing that will dull the expansionist appetites of people in Moscow.
It has been said that the United States needs strong leaders to impress and intimidate other world leaders. Responsible world leaders are unanimous in their understanding that wisdom is at the heart of true leadership and that the absence of wisdom is why some leaders become authoritarian and dictatorial. Weak leaders are easily compromised by flattery and fall victim to the temptation to seek the approbation of dictators and bullies.
It has been said that grocery prices have not come down since the end of the pandemic and that this is proof that the US economy is in trouble. While grocery prices are still higher than they should be, gasoline prices have plunged to below three dollars, the stock market is doing quite well, overall inflation is approaching the 2% goal of the Federal Reserve, Nobel Laureate economists all agree that the US economy is the strongest in the world, unemployment is low, wages are increasing, roads and bridges are being repaired and all the metrics for measuring the economic health of a nation are blinking bright green.
It has been said that Adolf Hitler did some good things. Whatever good things he may have done are certainly outweighed by his precipitation of World War II, the thousands of soldiers who died in defense of freedom, the millions of Jews who were mercilessly murdered in concentration camps and the havoc that he caused worldwide in pursuit of his ambition to rule the world.
Many things are said everyday that have no correlation with reality. In a democracy, everyone can cast a ballot for truth and dignity. It has also been said that this is the greatest defense against the mendacity that is distorting the political realities in which we all must live.
Msgr. Garrity is a Senior Priest in the Archdiocese of Boston and former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and School, Lynn.
