The Upside of a Shooting Spree
I'd hate to imply by the title that there is ever really anything positive about the recent events in Arizona. For my part I don't really think the shootings have much to do with the political clime that existed prior to it, rather I believe that it is and indictment of our current mental health crisis (which dwarfs the so-called normal health crisis in terms of making a Rubik's cube look like fitting a round peg into a round hole).
However, today my mom sent out one of those exasperating e-mail forwards. It was actually fairly tame as far as such things go and for a change I agreed with it-the e-mail was a rebuttal response to an article that was dunning military pay raises BUT the article it was supposedly criticizing was falsely attributed to a person working in the current administration. This was not the case (the article was written 9 years ago by someone that had an ancillary position in the congressional budget office under Clinton and was NOT as the forward claimed an Obama appointee to the National Security Office[which I don't even think exists]).
I calmly refuted the article, careful to avoid any political opinion-just pointing out that the citation was inaccurate and backed it up via Snopes.com.
Mom sent me an e-mail thanking me for my research. Her exact words were this:
"This is what caused the rift between parties and is designed by people that can't be working for the good of the people or they would be fully truthful---Mom"
When I visited mom at home tonight she made a point of asking me how, exactly, to check out a story on Snopes.
I hope she remembers.(Mom is a bit of a computerphobe :)
Now, Mom isn't a tea-partyer. She's a rational and VERY intelligent woman who can smell bullshit at a thousand paces. She might not know how to check out a dubious e-mail (and I despair of my own ability to check out the veracity of whatever media they are utilizing when i am in my 60's) but she is a very smart cookie-and that means that at the next round of horseshit e-mails she'll probably not only check the facts but send out a response to let people know that their info is five shades of brown from horseshit. She's a conservative-but a smart one-and she talks to conservatives that ain't so smart. And if you think she won't tell them they are full of dogcrap when they are then you probably doubt the sun's ability to come up in the east.
So maybe this horrible tragedy has this going for it-it's opened up and ear or two. That doesn't make up for the violence or the horror or a nine year old girl in the ground when she should be playing-but it might make for the best we can salvage.
So, start a new e-mail meme. Show your grandpas and dads and cousins how and why to use Snopes Don;t tell them they're wrong-just tell them that no one who says they are telling the truth should have to lie about anything.
Feel free to send them this. I'd be proud. I'm sure mom (and dad R.I.P.) would be proud you did.
However, today my mom sent out one of those exasperating e-mail forwards. It was actually fairly tame as far as such things go and for a change I agreed with it-the e-mail was a rebuttal response to an article that was dunning military pay raises BUT the article it was supposedly criticizing was falsely attributed to a person working in the current administration. This was not the case (the article was written 9 years ago by someone that had an ancillary position in the congressional budget office under Clinton and was NOT as the forward claimed an Obama appointee to the National Security Office[which I don't even think exists]).
I calmly refuted the article, careful to avoid any political opinion-just pointing out that the citation was inaccurate and backed it up via Snopes.com.
Mom sent me an e-mail thanking me for my research. Her exact words were this:
"This is what caused the rift between parties and is designed by people that can't be working for the good of the people or they would be fully truthful---Mom"
When I visited mom at home tonight she made a point of asking me how, exactly, to check out a story on Snopes.
I hope she remembers.(Mom is a bit of a computerphobe :)
Now, Mom isn't a tea-partyer. She's a rational and VERY intelligent woman who can smell bullshit at a thousand paces. She might not know how to check out a dubious e-mail (and I despair of my own ability to check out the veracity of whatever media they are utilizing when i am in my 60's) but she is a very smart cookie-and that means that at the next round of horseshit e-mails she'll probably not only check the facts but send out a response to let people know that their info is five shades of brown from horseshit. She's a conservative-but a smart one-and she talks to conservatives that ain't so smart. And if you think she won't tell them they are full of dogcrap when they are then you probably doubt the sun's ability to come up in the east.
So maybe this horrible tragedy has this going for it-it's opened up and ear or two. That doesn't make up for the violence or the horror or a nine year old girl in the ground when she should be playing-but it might make for the best we can salvage.
So, start a new e-mail meme. Show your grandpas and dads and cousins how and why to use Snopes Don;t tell them they're wrong-just tell them that no one who says they are telling the truth should have to lie about anything.
Feel free to send them this. I'd be proud. I'm sure mom (and dad R.I.P.) would be proud you did.