VietNow
National Magazine
Ready to
Forward That E-Mail?
Please Stop and Think First.
By Darrell and Linda Gilgan
Linda and I produce the
newsletter for the Rockford VietNow Charter
Chapter, and we receive dozens of e-mails
every month from well-meaning people. Unfortunately,
many of these e-mails relay false information,
are meant to defame someone, or are political
in nature. Some newsletter editors will
print these “forwards” – we
will not.
We get so much junk forwarded
to us that we check every fact before we
even consider publishing them in our chapter
newsletter. Whenever we receive a suspect
e-mail, we direct the sender to www.snopes.com (Urban Legends) or another web site to
get the facts – but I’m not
sure it does any good.
Too many stories
go around the Internet without being substantiated.
It’s
a shame. One of the untrue stories making
the rounds again is about Cindy Williams
of “Laverne and Shirley” fame,
speaking out against veterans. The lady
has actually received death threats. How
dumb can people be?
Note from Linda
As you can see, Darrell doesn’t
like those bogus “forwards,” or
ones that carry a virus. However,
people do often send some good
filler items for the newsletter,
or sometimes an inspirational
piece or joke to brighten our
day or just have a good laugh.
But please check out those
stories with www.snopes.com before
you send them to anyone. For
political stories, go to nonpartisan
www.factcheck.org.Spreading
lies about anyone isn’t
cool.
Some recent e-mail lies
include: Andy Rooney making racist
comments. Bill Clinton charging
rent for his Secret Service guys.
Congressmen not paying into Social
Security. And all illegal aliens
getting Social Security benefits.
Some
recent factual e-mails:
The soldier’s funeral procession
in Texas. The Christmas wreaths
at Arlington. President Bush
jogging with a soldier wearing
a leg prosthesis. It really feels
good to check on something and
find out that it’s actually
true!
As for “forwards,” if
you copy and paste the material
instead of simply forwarding
it with umpteen e-mail addresses,
it will be a clean copy visually,
as well as being (possibly) virus
free.
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Another untrue story
that comes back on a regular basis is the
Jane Fonda story about her taking notes
passed to her by POWs during her visit
to Hanoi and turning them over to the North
Vietnamese jailers. Lord knows that she
did many things to demean the POWs, but
that wasn’t
one of them. Recently, I read again about
the things she actually did back in the
1970s and I’m mad all over again,
but this false story is one we can’t
blame on her.
Many times “forwards” are
partly true or just don’t contain
all the facts. The story about the guards
at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington
National Cemetery is nice, but it’s
not totally true. “They must commit
two years of life to guard the tomb, live
in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot
drink any alcohol on or off duty for the
rest of their lives.” Not
true. Actually, the tour of duty isn’t
set, but is usually one year. They do not
live under the tomb – a detail
comes over from Fort Myer several times
a day, and they can even live off base.
Also, there are no restrictions on off-duty
drinking.
You probably know that CBS
News and Dan Rather got their behinds in
a sling over the forged Bush military-service
memos. Someone at CBS stated that even
though the memos were forged, the facts
were true. They missed the point. It’s
like saying that the Arlington National
Cemetery story is partly true, so it’s
OK to pass it on.
We have received some
of these e-mails at least three or four
times each, and none of them are true.
Apparently, many people see stories like
these and think, “That’s a
great story!” and
then send it on without checking to see
if it’s even true. Parts of the Arlington
National Cemetery story are true, but you
have to wonder why anyone would change
the facts and send out junk. What’s
their motivation?
It’s always a good
idea to check every “forward” before
you send it on. We don’t forward
anything until we know that it’s
true. In fact, most “forwards” that
we get are deleted without being read.
We know people who will send us six or
eight “forwards” at a time.
Those people apparently think
that everyone else is too dumb to find
anything on the Internet for themselves.
If a person feels the information
in a “forward” is
important enough to send to us, they should
send us an e-mail explaining why we need
to know the information, and then we will
decide if it’s important to us.
The
bottom line is simple. If you can’t
prove it’s true, don’t send
it to us. OK – enough lecturing for
now.
Darrell and Linda Gilgan
are active members of the Rockford Charter
Chapter in Illinois. Darrell serves as
VietNow National Board Secretary, and Linda
is editor of the chapter newsletter.
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