What is Truth?

 

I listened to an interview the other day. I probably should just lay off news and interviews all together. Sometimes I leave wondering what planet I’ve landed on, or come from. The person answering the questions was giving answers I could easily Google and see were incorrect. Yet the person answered with such confidence, you wondered if all of the sources on Google were wrong and this one person held the right answer. Apparently “proving” isn’t the point anymore.

I used to be able to say or believe something was “true” and feel confident that was so.  Like the moon landing, that was a “true” event. I even saw it with my own eyes. “True” was often something provable, and you would think today the proving part would be easy, what with all the opportunities for things to be recorded or researched. But even that doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Those who hold that the moon landing didn’t happen, except on a sound stage, see their view as true.  Today true is only true if I say it’s true; that’s “my truth”.  There is no absolute truth anymore. Truth is all relative.  And I guess that wouldn’t be so bad if others could accept my “truth” and allow me to live it. But often, my truth doesn’t count, even for me, if your truth is something different. All the provable images in the world doesn’t change another’s truth claims. So all of Google’s statistics don’t matter if the person being interviewed says they are false.

Take all the news about immigration. We hear of hundreds of people put on planes and taken to an El Salvador prison because they are guilty of the heinous crime of being “illegal”. We are told that most people who come into our country illegally are already criminals and have been running amok in the country dealing drugs, raping and murdering American citizens. Obviously some have, but so also have full American citizens been dealing drugs, raping and murdering fellow citizens. But really, every single person in our country illegally (whether by crossing the already death defying boarder, or living here with an expired visa) is a criminal?  Well, taken literally, the fact that they are “illegal” makes them a criminal, period. And, I guess, in today’s world all criminals are the same, whether you are a parent, hold down a job and pay taxes or you murdered someone to take their money. And even if there is a distinction to be made, there is no opportunity to make it. People are pulled out of their homes and workplaces, and deported with no day in court. All of this because our current government has definitions for these terms that are different, or less black and white, then what might have been considered true before.

I agree that if there are 11 million people living here illegally* it would be almost impossible to give everyone their day in court. (Our President says it’s 21 million, which if you count lawful permanent immigrant residents it would add up to 21 million, but technically they are here legally).  Surely we know which people have a legitimate criminal record and which have been working to build a legitimate life here.  The focus was to be on the former, but when you paint them all with the same brush, the focus is on anyone who is living here without citizenship (because we’ve seen even people with active student visas and green cards deported).

My research showed that there were about 8.3 million undocumented workers in the United States. You read reports of rising concern from the companies who have hired these workers, especially farm workers. Who is going to pick strawberries for minimum wage? Exactly what jobs have these workers taken from the rest of us?  I picked strawberries when I was a kid. It was back breaking, dirty, and exhausting. I worked alongside people we referred to as “migrant” workers. They traveled from crop to crop to make a living for their families. They could out pick all of us kids – but they were being paid by the weight of what they picked. You have to pick a lot of strawberries to weigh in. That was more motivating to them then to me. But other than kids and the migrant workers, no one else seemed lined up to work those fields.  Once we deport everyone, who will fill these jobs? Summer job kids do not make the best workers in the fields, trust me.

And what about the idea that all of these undocumented (and, unfortunately, some documented if having a green card or school visa still can’t save you today) are criminals. My research also showed that there were 17,048 criminal convictions of illegals in 2024, with DUI’s being the highest convictions with 2,844 people, behind illegal entry and re-entry convictions of 10,935 people. Added together, those two crimes make 13,779 out of the 17, 048 total convictions – making up 80% of the crimes committed by undocumented people in 2024.  Certainly there were assaults, drug deals, and murders, but by much fewer people, part of only 20% of all crimes committed by undocumented people according to this research. So where does the government get the much larger statistics regarding “heinous” crime by illegals? Why are they labeling them all “heinous criminals”?

The President said those of us concerned by seeing these criminals have their day in court are “sick”. But as sick as I may be, it would appear that not all of the undocumented people living in America today are dangerous, in fact they are much needed participants in our workforce, doing jobs most of us have no desire to do. I love eating strawberries, and I am thankful for the people who pick them, but I would not want to be on my knees from dawn to dusk harvesting them for a living. Been there done that.

All of this to say – my research only means something to me. I am thankful for Google. I didn’t have to go to a reference section in the library and look up these statistics I’ve quoted. I enjoy research and crunching numbers. I also understand that not everything I read is true, and even these statistics could indeed be false. But it’s obvious what appears as provable facts to me are not so obvious to others. My truth, and the truth of those researchers who crunched those numbers (many taken from the last Census), do not add up to the truth of those leading our government today.  And immigration is only one small portion of the challenges to my truth I feel every day.

It is obvious we live in a world without any absolutes let alone objective truths.  2 + 2 don’t have to make 4 if I don’t want them to, or believe they do.

In the Bible Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” I’ve centered my life on that truth. It’s my North Star that has not failed when all the rest of my world seems to have gone crazy. Or maybe I really am from a different planet. I better check my documents.

 

*all numbers were taken off Google, most from government sources, using search for number of illegal aliens living in America and criminal offenses by illegal aliens.