The Truth

The plan was to go straight through all of the Dissent pieces on "Intellectuals in America" without interruption, but I'm sorry. I've been procrastinating and pre-occupied and then I came across this gem while reading the Boston Globe online. I promise, I'll be back on task in the relatively near future.

I swear it all started with a Globe blog comparing TX and MA on progressive criminal legislation - apparently Texas has nixed their life without parole laws for juveniles, while MA has 57 lifers doing time for crimes they committed when younger than 18.

Anyway - apparently Paul Pierce of the Celtics also blogs - under the tag-line "Boston Celtics captain speaks The Truth and nothing but"

Before I get started - the easiest and perhaps most unfair critique is to point out the irony (hypocrisy?) that at the end of each post on The Truth is a small byline reading: "As told to Globe Reporter Julian Benbow", which means that Mr. Pierce cares so much about the The Truth, he can't be bothered to write it himself.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not such a fan of celebrity culture, but I was interested in exactly what Truth Mr. Pierce claimed to be espousing. It turns out The Truth isn't about class war or racism or environmental degradation or health care or, you know, the issues that one might call important. No, our latest Truth is about how much Paul Pierce is looking forward to proving his skills in the 3-point shootout. Damn, I'm glad I got that dose of Truth. Perhaps I'm jaded and old (or maybe those are true, but irrelevant) but I sort of thought the Truth could be powerful. As in - people risked their lives "speaking Truth to Power".

To be fair, his prior post is about Haiti and I suppose I can concede that there is some merit to his linking of tragedy from the general: Haiti, New Orleans, to the specific: his being stabbed. But my problem is that he misses a larger opportunity to talk about The Truth. Hundreds of thousands died in Haiti because of the earthquake and we talk about it being a natural disaster. But Chile experiences a bigger quake and the number of deaths are a fraction. The tragedy in Haiti has a lot less to do with the natural disaster than most people think and a lot more to do with the history of American imperialism, Cold War politics and racism than most people are willing to admit. That, fearless reader, is The Truth.