sad, so sad...

Some things just make me sad.  Not surprised, just disappointed.  And sad.

I dally with urban legends.  I try not to retell and spread them, without a disclaiming stating that this is a hoax.  We have enough real threats out there without the scare tactics, catastrophic rhetoric, and dire warnings of what may possibly happen to someone some where....

One of the most common ways urban myths are spread are through emails.  You know, when you get one of those forwareded urgent horrible messages about what happened to a friend's friend's friend's friend.  (now I got the lyrics, heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend)  Usually those messages say something like, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

Do not believe everything you read.  Chances are that the person who forwarded this plea, warning, etc. was very well-intentioned and wanted to pass the message on because they care, either for you or the cause or both.  These seem to target women and children more often than not, and are related to safety issues.

One example is the myriad of missing child pleas that make it into your post.  First off, let me clearly say that CODE ADAM and AMBER ALERTS are very real.  However not all missing child pleas are authentic.  Those that are fake detract from the real cases, the real searches, the real horrors.

If you receive something you think might not be entirely legitimate, my advice is, research it.  You are already online, if you are checking email.  Do a general searching using any of the search engines you prefer.  AOL allows you to perform a search right in the address line.  Just type in whatever the subject or gist of the email message is, then poke around and see what shows up.

In the case of AMBER ALERTS, you can go directly to the official site to verify the actual identity of the missing child.  http://codeamber.org/alerts.html  In fact, some of the hoaxes are so well-developed that they seem to have taken on a life of their own, complete with variations to the story.  The folks at CODEAMBER research these so they can concentrate on the real cases and warn you from those that aren't fact, so you do not waste time, energy, effort, and worry about those detracting from the actual missing child cases.

So if a forwarded email tugs at your heartstrings, makes your eyes tear, or your heart leap into your throat....before passing the post on in frantic fear and a desire to do your part in warning your loved ones, check to see if the message contains sensational stories or if it is indeed verifiable fact.

 

Very briefly, on a different note...the samo samo state of the nation is sad, sad, sad.  Not surprisingly, just disappointingly, a margin of the voting population eeked Bush into office for yet another term.  If some crisis occurs that he can be hero in, please don't be alarmed.  It isn't so much that we are safe from his ineptitude.  Rather that the hype of his tactics reminds me of some of the rhetoric I spoke of earlier.

I spoke with several international friends last night, from various regions of the world.  I felt like the American embassador as I fielded questions about just how stupid and foolish we are.  Here's to the blind hope that Bush might stop the insanity of so many of his injurous moves, clean up his act a bit, and perhaps improve a few needed areas...OR am I just being another foolish American?