There are many quotes in the Bible that guide us but there is one that challenges us.  It was uttered by the Roman perfect of Judea Pontius Pilate, with Jesus standing before him:  “What is truth?”

In the New Testament according to John (18:33-38) Pilate and Jesus have a cat and mouse conversation after Jewish leaders dragged the preacher before him on charges of insurrection.  Pilate asks, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replies, “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?” Pilate: “Am I a Jew? Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me.

Jesus finally answers the original question by claiming the Jews misunderstood him, that his “kingdom” was not of this world.  Pilate: “You are a king, then!” Jesus answers, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.” At this point, Pilate is tired of the semantic banter and ends it with “What is the truth?” By now, he must believe that Jesus is just another hair-splitting religious fanatic and dismisses the case.  But, we know that is not where it ends.

Pilate and Jesus were from two different worlds – one from a superstitious but pragmatic Italy, the other from the obsessive-compulsive theocracy of Judea.  Pilate’s clan name Pontius hints that he hailed from ancient Samnite country, now parts of the Italian regions of Molise and Abruzzo.  Samnites were a mountainous Italic tribe that even the Romans feared.  It took the Romans 32 years in three wars to subdue the Samnites – in comparison it took Julius Caesar only 8 years to conquer all the Celtic tribes of Gaul.  Coming from such a hardcore European world, truth was more than a word game for Pilate.

Today, we are faced with lots of truths, and like Pilate, we struggle to figure out who is telling the truth.  There are certainly lies, half-truths, distortions, “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and my favorite “omission”. This week, a trial is scheduled to find the truth about what Donald Trump calls “The Russia Hoax” – the circus that distracted the nation for three years and spawned the $40 million Mueller Report.  Taking the lead in prosecuting this case, U.S. v. Sussmann (Michael Sussmann was Hillary Clinton’s campaign attorney), is U.S. Attorney Andrew DeFilippis.  DeFilippis is working directly for Special Prosecutor John Durham.  If you still believe Trump colluded with Russia to get elected in 2016, and you never heard of Durham or his investigation, the corporate media has done its job – news by omission!

DeFilippis is an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.  Durham is convinced that tying Trump to Russia was indeed a fraud.  In a nutshell, the Clinton campaign invented a “dossier” of scandals supposedly uncovered by a British spy named Christopher Steele.  One tidbit has Trump in a Moscow hotel bed asking Russian call girls to urinate on him for thrills – the stuff of Russian blackmail.  To energize this dossier, Sussmann went to the FBI allegedly palming himself off as just a concerned citizen, rather than a Clinton lawyer.  The FBI curiously took the bait and the fraud was off and running.  What is the truth? 

Also in the news is Florida legislation signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that establishes November 7th as Victims of Communism Day.  Florida high schools will be required to teach a 45-minute session on Communism during Social Studies classes.  The session is to cover topics such as Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet system, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the Chavismo movement in Venezuela.  DeSantis was no doubt lobbied for such a program by the many Florida residents who escaped those Communist regimes.  But he feels that students across the nation don’t understand that communism isn’t just an alternative economic theory but a murderous dogma when implemented; that it was responsible for 100 million murders of its own citizens during the 20th Century; and continues to rule by terror.

Leftist pundits may excuse Che Guevara tee-shirts or hammer & sickle logos as just fun, but to DeSantis, taking them lightly or embracing them is as bad as neo-Nazism.  Students should know the whole truth those symbols represent.

Pilate’s question is still valid. -JLM