Defending reality
Fifty-four years ago today, as I write this, the Apollo 11 spacecraft entered the orbit of the moon. It wasn’t the first time. Two previous missions, Apollo 8 and Apollo 10, had already had that honour. What made Apollo 11 unique was that it was planned that part of the spacecraft would land on the moon the very next day with two of its three crewmen aboard.
And so it did. To be alive and watching that majestic panoply at that moment in time was to be part of something very special. I was thirteen years old and utterly enthralled. Every human being alive in those days had a chance to partake in a magic moment of peril and triumph, and I imbibed my full share. I was proud to be a member of the human race.
The pride I felt from that day to this for that event remains undiminished. Nor can all the yammerheaded fools in all their tinfoil hats deter me for a single moment from enjoying, to the full, the triumph of that distant day and the pride I still feel because of it.
We did it and we did it for keeps, and we did it for all time. We went to the moon and returned safely. And a plaque fastened to the ladder of the base of the Lunar Module testifying to that fact remains where we left it — on the lunar surface along with the human footprints of the men who left them there — all these years later.
People, stupid people, evil people, people with nothing vested in the best that we are and no commitment to the truth, mistakenly think they’re clever when they tinker with reality. They are not clever. If going to the moon is mankind at its best, denying we went there is mankind at its worst. It is my sad duty, and the duty of every custodian of the truth, to defend reality whenever a fool attacks it. It’s a duty I am always prepared to take up.
That duty extends to other matters of fact also under assault by fools. Think for a moment what fools mean when they declare that the prosecution of Donald Trump is political. Think how galling that is when that absurd claim is made in the shadow of a Republican Congress that is engaged in an actual political assault on innocent citizens. Think of how galling it is that they engage in that performative monkeyshine for an audience of one, their Lord and Savior Donald J Trump.
Yet the facts remain unassailable, so much so the fools know about those facts and hope you don’t. The facts are these. The prosecution of Donald Trump is being made by diverse American institutions wholly independent of politics. They are using, almost exclusively, Republican witnesses, most of them his very own personal lawyers, his very own people. Trump is being charged with crimes that he publicly confessed to on tape, on video and in social media.
If it goes to trial the evidence will be heard by a jury of his peers. Trump will receive the full benefit of American Due Process and he will enjoy the advantage of lawyers financed by millions of dollars donated by his adoring fans.
It isn’t political. The House Judiciary Committee fawning over fake whistleblowers, Chinese spies and nonexistent evidence, now that’s political. For justice to prevail we must be the defenders of reality. For the majestic American experiment to succeed we must never let the enemies of reality prevail. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.