This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated June 4, 2021
On Monday, May 31, Bay Ridge once again hosted the oldest, continuously running Memorial Day parade in the county. Due to the pandemic, the 154th edition was held as a motorcade for the second year in a row, though this year’s was expanded, with the reintroduction of a parade float and an invitation for anyone to join the procession.
Despite the event taking place on Memorial Day, if you had only read certain social media posts at the beginning of the holiday weekend, you would have believed that it was canceled and that it was all Councilman Justin Brannan’s fault. Obviously, that was not the case.
On the Friday before Memorial Day, Brannan’s challenger in this year’s election promoted the idea that the Memorial Day event would not take place “down the streets of Bay Ridge” and that it was “not a priority of Councilman Justin Brannan.” But the event was set to take place and Brannan had offered to help organizers make sure it continued.
Raymond Aalbue, Executive Director of United Military Veterans of Kings County and organizer of the Brooklyn Memorial Day Parade, explained weeks before this year’s event that even though the recent easing of COVID restrictions would have probably allowed for their normal parade format, “it was just too late. We started planning our parade in September, October last year.” He added that “the committee of mainly Veterans that runs this parade did this as a collective decision.”
The same political candidate stating on May 28 that the Memorial Day event had been cancelled, was at the very Memorial Day event three days later, as it took place. This same candidate had said on May 12 that Brannan’s district office “for years… sadly is always closed,” even though Brannan has kept his office open throughout the entire pandemic.
“The trend of saying anything that helps one politically, even when demonstrably false, is troubling and a problem that is growing exponentially.”
Besides offering his help to keep the Memorial Day parade going throughout the pandemic, Brannan actually helped save it ten years ago when funding from Albany was suddenly withdrawn from the parade organizers. The Bay Ridge Democrats political club, then led by Brannan, helped raise thousands of dollars back in 2011 that led to the parade being able to continue.
The trend of saying anything that helps one politically, even when demonstrably false, is troubling and a problem that is growing exponentially. We saw that with the results of the past presidential election. We know what the facts are and I recognize there are people who were disappointed with the outcome – I felt that way four years earlier – but millions of people have decided to believe a big lie because they do not like the truth.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a majority of Republicans still believe Trump won the election, with six in ten saying it was stolen from him. We saw what resulted from this mass delusion when the United States Capitol was attacked on January 6. However, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll released last week, found that 73 percent of Republicans blame left-wing protesters for the events of the pro-Trump insurrection.
When you abandon any connection to facts that do not suit you, you can react strictly on emotion and forego inconvenient realities. Do not like the results of an election? You can decide they were rigged against your candidate. Find it difficult to defend the supporters of your candidate after he told them to fight like hell and they did so against cops? You can decide it was really the actions of the other side, pretending they were your side.
And it does not seem to matter if these views are contradictory. January 6 could be peaceful MAGA patriots but also a left-wing riot. COVID-19 can be a killer, bio-engineered virus China released but also a left-wing hoax that is not deadly.
This extends to a City Council candidate saying a parade was canceled because a political opponent did not care to save it, but then also attending the parade a few days later. It is lazy and it is only done because some think that all of us are lazy. Do not let anyone treat you as if you are too lazy to understand and accept the truth.
