DeeEl's Mo Chroí Scríofa

Truth In Advertising?

I need to begin by saying I am not a religious person.  This is not about religion.  Nor is it about the bashing of religions.  In December 2008, I wrote Injustice And Intolerance In The Name Of God.  This came after hearing about a religious group in the UK protesting against a poet because they didn’t like his work.  I did not claim that all Christian groups are like the two that I wrote about in that article.  I just take it a little personally when someone (anyone) tries to stifle the voice of a poet or any writer just because they don’t happen to like the content which flows from the writer’s pen.  There are many things I do not personally approve of or perhaps just don’t care for.  I chose not to invest my time and energy in participating in those things.

The other day I received an e-mail from a friend which was a forward.  I receive a lot of these as I am sure y’all do as well.  This e-mail had the subject line of FW: A song some radio stations are banning, “Please Watch”.  I read the e-mail which stated this song was banned by radio stations and President Obama because it is “politically incorrect”.  There was a link to the YouTube post of the Diamond Rio song “Presidents Day”.  The song is an apparent religious/political song.  This is the reason for my opening statements.  I did not forward this e-mail.

Now for more.  I have also received in the past e-mails telling about people who are ill with cancers or children who are missing and asking that you go to a website and give money and then forward the posts along.  These items don’t just come in e-mails from friends, but you get them on Facebook and Twitter as well.  These do not come from unintelligent people.  They come from very caring people who are sympathetic to the plights described within.  The only problem is the messages are not vetted to be proven out.

Having been duped before by strangers tugging on my heartstrings, I prove out things before I follow through with any requests made by the sender of the e-mail or posting.  I have also replied back with my findings.  Having said all of this, you can guess where I am going.

Yes, upon seeing a heading that people are banning a song (poetry set to music), I got my feathers ruffled.  After watching the video of the song, I set it aside.  I have learned it is best to not write when I am ruffled.  After a cooling off period, I got to work.  I began Googling every way I could think of to find legitimate articles regarding this banning.  (As a writer I love researching and as a researcher, I love writing about my finds.)  I could find no information about this so-called banning.  Only more links to the YouTube video. 

There were many comments on the various links with thoughts and feelings about the song in general and the supposed banning of the song.  One comment I read stated that the song was never meant for public airplay.  Since it was recorded and performed at a live venue, this does not seem to be the case.  Perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be released to radio stations and Diamond Rio wanted to save it for their fans on an album.  I can only speculate on this matter.

Truth in advertising can mean many things in this day and age.  When e-mails are sent or posts are made to blogs, Twitter and Facebook, there should be truth held within.  I fault those who begin these shams.  Some are attempting to fleece monies from unsuspecting sympathetic souls.  Others are to gain notoriety.  One thing that has resulted from this latest e-mail is gaining more viewings on YouTube. 

My advise to all is to vet out the information you receive regarding such things before you forward the information along.

Liar, Liar

Setting aside the old joke that you can tell a politician is lying because his lips are moving I find the need to address the newest news-maker, Anthony Weiner.

When the story first hit the wires and came into my living room I hardly gave it consideration.  Was he sexting?  Was his Twitter account hacked?  I didn’t know and didn’t care.

I am not a fan of sexting and yes, I do believe that if you are doing things like this with anyone other than your spouse or significant other than it is cheating.  Any time you take an intimacy that should be reserved for that special relationship and you give it to someone outside that relationship, it is cheating.  This is my opinion and does not reflect any other person or group’s opinions or beliefs.

Mr. Weiner was caught with his pants down, proverbially and literally it seems.  Was what he did in sexting with other women wrong?  Perhaps, but that should be between he and his wife.  For this I do not believe he should resign.

Resignation would seem to be in order however.  When the news first broke of lewd photos appearing on Mr. Weiner’s Twitter account his first report was that someone hacked his account.  After this it was brought forth that these were actual photos of the Congressman and he claimed that either someone Photoshopped his photo or obtained the actual photo from his computer and used it.  More lies?

When women began to emerge claiming that Mr. Weiner had in fact been sexting them, he came clean and admitted to the accusations.

On-line activity is still quite new and the laws haven’t quite caught up so I don’t know that he has broken any laws in what he has done.  Ethically and morally speaking he needs an attorney, so to speak.  This would not have been such a media sensation had he just fessed up and told the truth from the beginning.  At that point he would have just had to contend with his wife and the other women.  Now he has congress seeking his resignation.

If he were my representative in congress I would be calling for his resignation as well.  If he can’t own up to something and has to tell all these lies than I would not be able to trust him to make the best decisions where it counts.

Another old saying comes to mind here, “Liar, liar, pants on fire…”

Ignorance Isn’t Always Bliss

The assimilation of the internet into the daily lives of the vast population of the world affords the ability to explore the truths about our fellow human beings.  We have, literally, at our fingertips the ability to learn and understand cultures which are not our own.  So why is there still so much ignorance and hatred masquerading as intelligent personage?

On Thursday November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place on an American military base on US soil.  It has been said that this is the worst shooting at an American military installation in history.  While no reports initially coming out of Fort Hood indicating any type of terrorist activity, people began posting on social networks (i.e.: Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that the shooter was Muslim and indicated it therefore had to be an act of terrorism.

Reports that I watched bespoke Maj. Nidal Malik had had several deployments and was working as a psychiatrist with many individuals returning from deployment with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  However, even the experts can miss or even supress symptoms of PTSD in themselves.

Ignorance regarding other religions and cultures leads to untoward hatred.  Ignorance regarding mental illness in general and PTSD specifically, leads to fear and ill-fated hatred.  Hence, all roads lead to hatred.

In the 1958 film South Pacific, the song “You Have To Be Taught” was sung by sung by two of the primary leads.  One an American, the other a Frenchman.  they had both fallen in love with someone outside their upbringing.  Trying to justify not following their hearts regarding love, the American and the American the Frenchman fell in love with discussed the hatred they were taught to have toward all those who are different from themselves and their American families.

I was raised more or less sheltered from the hatred in the outside world.  However, I knew that my family was prejudiced against blacks and anyone not of the ‘christian’ faith.  I was not overtly subjected to acts of hatred or even slurs, but I knew.  I even found myself as an adult having similar ideation.

Two years ago I really began to look at myself deeper.  I found myself calling people friend that had I known certain things about them before, I would not have gotten any closer to them than as an acquaintance.  The internet allowed me to get to know people from different religions, cultures and political affiliations without the bias of knowing these things.  I found that I get to know and enjoy people who are differnt from me.

The old cliche’ “nothing new under the sun” is so accurate it’s scary.  Small minded people have been stiring up fear and hatred in otherwise intelligent people since the beginning of time.  The problem today is the ease of information flowing out for our education.  In other words, there is NO excuse for ignorant fear and hatred in societies today.  I wonder if Maj. Malik’s name were Johnson or Greene, would people have been so fast to holler “terrorist”?  Today, education is bliss  ~~  ignorance is remiss.

This post was actually written 11/6/09, however, due to computer issues I was unable to publish it till now.