MILT THOMAS

If you are old enough to remember the TV show Dragnet and Sgt Friday saying, “Just the facts, ma’am,” you know that the search for truth is as old as television itself. Actually, a bit older.

At one time most educated people agreed the sun revolving around the earth was a fact, and the earth was flat. Columbus proved the world wasn’t flat, but in the process thought he had, in fact, discovered India. To this day, the people we call Indians are actually the first true Americans. We only recognized them as Americans after they gave up their old way of life in favor of reservations with casinos.

One way of presenting something as a fact is to call it that. If you say, this is not my opinion, it is a fact. We can all nod our heads in agreement and go back to watching Jerry Springer.

Or – we can try to determine what facts, if any, are contained in someone’s claim.  Without getting into any specifics, I believe that at InsideVero, we try to take what is being claimed as fact and provide evidence that it is – or is not – factual. Which is not an easy task, because often different sides to an issue have their own set of facts. PR is a great tool for relaying information, as long as you realize the person writing the PR is being paid by a company or organization to give their side of an issue. So the question you should ask is really who stands to gain the most by espousing their point of view? It may not have anything to do with facts.

Locally, the most contested issue right now is the sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power and Light. It would seem, listening to sale proponents, that there is only one fact at stake – your electric bill – and the FPL offer is the best we can do to lower it.  Many opponents actually agree that it is a good idea to get out of the utility business.  They are simply saying this particular deal is a bad one for Vero Beach.  So who stands to gain the most from their respective points of view?

They say that history is written by the victors, whoever ‘they’ are. So can we say with any certainty whether our history is based on facts or the victors’ opinions? If you live in the Middle East right now, facts depend on which end of an AK-47 you stand on. Here in Vero Beach, we only have to worry about which end of the baloney you stand on. And that’s a fact.