Is anybody else a fan of “Star Trek – The Next Generation”?
For my money, one of the most powerful moments in the entire seven-year series, came in the two-part episode “Chain of Command”.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart), had been captured by the Cardassians and tortured for several days by Gal Madred (played by David Warner). Madred was trying to force Picard to divulge Federation plans for the defense of an outpost that the Cardassians were intent on capturing.
Realizing that Picard, known for his iron-will, would refuse to cooperate, Madred hoped to break that will by means of a fiendishly cruel but simple stratagem:
During their first encounter after Picard’s capture, Madred had Picard brought to him in a sparse room illuminated by four bright lights above and behind the desk where Madred was seated. Madred then asked Picard to count the lights and tell him how many there were, to which Picard naturally replied: “There are four lights”.
“No”, countered Madred, “There are five lights, can’t you see that?”
Picard looked again, counted the lights and repeated that he saw only four lights. This time instead of a verbal reply, Madred pressed a button on a small transmitter in his hand, immediately inducing gut-wrenching pain throughout Picard’s body, causing him to collapse on the floor, gasping for breath.
With a paper-thin veneer of civility, Madred explained that the debilitating shock of sheer agony would be administered every time Picard refused to concede that there were five lights in the room.
Just like brutal-minded bullies in this Century, Madred understood that before you can induce decent people to do your bidding, you must first get them to renounce the reality presented by their own senses and accept your twisted truths as their own.
In Madred’s case, though, he was simply trying to bully the wrong person. Throughout the ensuing days, despite several increasingly inhumane bouts of interrogation, Picard refuses to grant Madred even the smallest of concessions, insisting whenever asked that he sees only the four lights.
The Victory ultimately belongs to Picard when, just before he is released from captivity, and following Madred’s one last, particularly brutal effort to break his will, Picard, though on the verge of physical collapse, looks up at the lights, fixes a withering gaze on Madred and declares: “There are FOUR lights!” He then shakes off the grips of his captors and wobbles weakly but defiantly from the room.
I’ll be honest: the only trait I share with either Sir Patrick Stewart or the heroic Captain Picard he played so brilliantly, is my bald head.
Nonetheless, I find the Truth made obvious by this episode to be particularly compelling, even more so given the torrent of lies spewing constantly from the tyrants and bullies currently controlling the U.S. Government.
Therefore, in defense of my own sanity, and in an attempt to make the goals of these present-day tyrants more difficult to achieve, I hereby declare my own Top-Ten list of “There are FOUR lights!” observations:
1.) Trump unequivocally LOST the 2020 election.
2.) In an effort to retain power in spite of that loss, he incited a riot and attempted to violently overthrow the Government of the United States on January 6, 2021.
3.) During his first term in office, Trump was impeached twice for violating his Oath of Office: the first time for attempting to extort political favors from the President of Ukraine in exchange for the release of funds already appropriated by the U.S. Congress; the second time for the insurrection he instigated on January 6, 2021.
4.) In both cases, it was only the feckless and short-sighted complicity of Trump’s GOP enablers in the Senate that prevented him from being convicted and removed from office.
5.) As was extensively documented in The Washington’s Post’s 2019 “The Mueller Report” by Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky, during the 2016 election campaign Trump gladly accepted illegal assistance from Russia, a country that is openly hostile to U.S. national security interests around the world. Trump repeatedly repaid that assistance by espousing positions favorable to Vladimir Putin’s murderous regime and disregarding the advice and judgements of America’s own security institutions.
6.) It was only the standing policy of the U.S. Justice Department that a sitting President should not be indicted that prevented Trump’s criminal prosecution on several felony charges stemming from these events, including Conspiracy and Obstruction of Justice.
7.) From the “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” report by Brie Sparkman and Sara Wiatrak, updated June 4, 2024:
“As of March 2024, Donald Trump has been personally charged with 88 criminal offenses in four criminal cases. This total reflects charges related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, election interference in Georgia, falsifying business records in New York, and mishandling classified records after leaving the presidency. Donald Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to be criminally indicted.”
6.) In May of 2024, Trump was convicted by a court and jury of 34 felonies related to his illegal efforts to influence the results of the 2016 election. He is thus the first felon ever to be elected to the Presidency of the United States. After his election to the Presidency, the Judge in the case sentenced Trump to an “Unconditional Discharge” with no legal penalties whatsoever.
7.) Through a sickening combination of legally dubious delay tactics and a blatantly corrupt, politically accommodating Supreme Court, Trump has succeeded in evading legal accountability for any of these crimes. Based on the evidence made public to date, he would have most likely been sentenced to lengthy prison terms had that evidence been presented to any impartial Jury.
8.) During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly proclaimed that his second term in office would be marked by revenge and retribution against those who stood against him and his dictatorial whims during his first term in office. His actions since his inauguration prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the threats he made were deadly serious.
9.) In seeking that revenge, Trump has made it brutally clear that he does not consider himself to be bound by the Oath of Office to “Protect and defend the Constitution” that he has now publicly taken twice.
10.) Several of his first administration’s highest-ranking officials gave us ample warning that returning Trump to office would present a grave, existential danger to the future of the Country. Those warnings have now been borne out by the motley crew of unqualified misfits and lunatics that Trump has appointed to the highest levels of the Federal government. As a result, the revenge and retribution he threatened will be felt by ALL Americans of every political persuasion.
The transgressions against our Democracy itemized above are the ten that I consider to be among the most egregious. Compiling a complete list of Trump’s lies, corrupt acts, and criminal violations of the Constitution would require more time than I have available to devote to the task.
The one trait they have in common, though, is that they ALL required (and continue to require) enough people (average citizens, elected representatives, members of the press, and the judiciary) who are willing to blindly accede to Trumps repeated proclamations that, in effect: “There are five lights, don’t you see them?”
I honestly do not know how those people (particularly those who have likewise sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution) are able to rationalize their blatant betrayal of those oaths and deny the volumes of evidence presented by their own senses.
As for myself, I will honestly and proudly state my dedication to the Truth no matter how loudly Trump and his band of brutal thugs try to proclaim otherwise.
“THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!”
Bridges-Not-Walls 