FWD: Grandma’s going down

Any story involving a rabbi, priest and a bar always leaves me laughing. What can I say? A lot of e-mail forwards wind up in my inbox.

If you have a grandma, you know what I’m talking about.

Lately, forwarded messages have come under attack, specifically those that are politically charged. For me, this isn’t a problem. Such e-mails usually pass right into my Trash folder. But now, they have somewhere else to go: flag@whitehouse.gov.

In a statement on the White House blog, titled “Facts are Stubborn Things,” the Obama administration warns of “scary chain e-mails and videos” that “percolate on the Internet,” spreading inaccurate information about the proposal for health-care reform.
Such misinformation, the blog claims, “often travels just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversation.”

Because the White House understands that it’s impossible for it to “track” all such assertions, it’s asked individuals to send in any “fishy” facts they hear.
Hold on a minute.

Perhaps I should forward the e-mail “Obama wants you to suffer a prolonged, agonizing death while private insurers watch helplessly” to the White House. I mean, it’s probably not factual. If anything, my prolonged, agonizing death would be an unanticipated result of a bloated federal health-care system – not the aim.

While it’s sad that there is misinformation being spread about health-care reform, the fact is there’s always been a healthy exchange of lies in America. We call it democratic debate. While some are deceived, many aren’t. And as a country, we’ve determined that truth is less valuable than free speech.

While lies indeed deserve to be combated with truth, turning in those who participate in passionate political exchange just doesn’t sit right with me – probably because many such fanatics are my friends.

I don’t wish to fearfully assume, like so many have, that the White House is compiling some super-secret enemies list. I trust, rather, that it simply wants to know what the opposition is sayingso that it may respond to the opposition with the full force of a YouTube video or a press release.

I do, however, desire to caution against the habit of reporting “fishy” speech to the government. That’s never really ended well in the past. I don’t think we should try it again. Reporting fishy facts could lead to reporting fishy people. That’s not a good idea.  

There has to be another way for the government to know what’s being tossed around online, because every angry activist, passionate college student and grandma deserves the right to speak freely, without fear, no matter how incorrect he or she may be.

NOTE: If any Obama administration official accidentally stumbled across this humble college column while Googling such serious matters as grandmas going down, I must confess: I am by no means describing or illustrating my own grandmother. Nor am I suggesting that she might be exercising her First Amendment rights. I love her too much to report her for such behavior. She’s a good woman.