Correcting The Record

A couple of days ago, I received two more Obama e-mail smears in my inbox sent to me by a good friend who knew I'd get riled up about them. For the record, he doesn't believe them either but gets a kick out of me going off on a rant.

Now that I've had time to calm down and process the information, I decided to rebut the e-mail with one of my own, defending Obama's true positions and debunking the smears with the truth, complete with links for all the naysayers to look it up on their own, all the while trying to be polite and not calling them out for the idiots they are. I sent it to everyone on the forwarded list, and then some (including Obama supporters and non-idiots) in an attempt to start an e-mail blast of my own.

Here is the email:
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From: Broadway Carl
To: Undisclosed list
Subject: Re: THE TRUTH - Obama "saluting the US flag" and "standing with the Muslims"

Hi,

Most of you don't know me, but I received this email with all of your emails attached to it so I thought it would be nice to respond to all of you.

I know we're in the habit of receiving emails like this "Obama not saluting the flag" email and assuming that every time we get an email, it MUST be true. Just like the "forward this email and Bill Gates will give you $100,000". Or "If you don't forward this email, bad luck will befall you and your dog will crap on your carpet".

We all know those emails are false, and all you have to do is look it up on this amazing internet we have and be able to find out in about 5 seconds if they are true or not. Unfortunately, if you have a preconceived notion of someone or something in particular and want to believe it, then you will. We all have an inclination to believe or not believe something based on how we feel about something rather than based on fact.

So I decided to look up the “Obama doesn't salute the US flag" to see if it had ANY merit whatsoever. Just as I suspected, it does not.

According to Snopes.com:

Back in October, 2007, one of the hottest e-mail forwards was a picture capturing Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama standing in front of a US flag (at an Iowa political event) with his hands clasped in front of him during the playing of the US National Anthem (while other persons on the platform with him stood with their hands placed over their hearts.) This photographic brouhaha soon mutated into a FALSE claim that Obama “refused to put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance” and the into the EVEN MORE FALSE claim that “he refused to recite the Pledge” at all – rumors which the Obama campaign soon provided evidence to negate.

While this controversy was all the rage on the Internet, political columnist John Semmens included a bit at the end of one of his satirical “Semi-News” columns (found on the website THE ARIZONA CONSERVATIVE) offering a mock explanation from the Senator about his non-hand-over-heart stance, poking fun at Obama by having him voice the opinion that “the American flag is a symbol of oppression” and that the US national anthem is too “bellicose” and should be replaced by something gentler like “I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing.”

This bit of satire evidently came off as too believable to some readers, as it has since been excerpted from Semmen’s column and forwarded via e-mail (WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION) as a genuine statement from Obama. However topical it might be, it’s just a bit of political commentaty-cum-humor, though, not the Senator’s own words.

So it took me longer to type the last three paragraphs out than it did to look this rumor up and find out it was false. And I’m letting you know the truth, COMPLETE WITH LINKS to verify that I’m not just making it up. You’re just one click away from seeing it for yourself and not just taking my word for it.

Here is another email I received. It’s a touching email about “John McCain’s Sons” and their military pedigree. At first glace, and about a 5 second check to verify it, the story seems to check out. Great! Good for John McCain and his sons. I’m sure he’s very proud of them. But then this touching email gets trashed by someone writing the following:

Has anybody heard if Barack Hussein Obama has served in The American Armed Services?

This is for all you Barack voters.
From Barack's book, Audacity of Hope:
"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

HE DID NOT SAY STAND WITH AMERICANS!!!!!

Laura

I don’t know who “Laura” is, whether she was the originator of the email or just someone passing it on, but here is THE TRUTH on this one. And all you had to do was actually look it up in the book which Laura claims the quote came from.

In this section of the book, Senator Obama was speaking about immigrants and citizenship. He often makes speeches to new citizens taking the oath after going through what they had to in order to become legal US citizens. And he speaks of the importance of not allowing inflamed public opinion to result in innocent members of immigrant groups being stripped of their rights, denied their due as American citizens, or placed in confinement, as was done with Japanese-Americans during World War II. Here is the actual passage from the book. Notice it contains no specific mention of “Muslims”:

"Whenever I appear before immigrant audiences, I can count on some good-natured ribbing from my staff after my speech; according to them, my remarks always follow a three-part structure: "I am your friend," "[Fill in the home country] has been a cradle of civilization," and "You embody the American dream." They're right, my message is simple, for what I've come to understand is that my mere presence before these newly minted Americans serves notice that they matter, that they are voters critical to my success and full-fledged citizens deserving of respect.

"Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." [Page 260-261]

Senator Obama was speaking of legal US citizens, immigrants who came to the US looking for a better life, legally emigrating here and that he would support them just like any other US citizen, as is their right. Anyone see the word “Muslim” in that quote? Me neither.

As far as Obama not serving in the Armed Services, well that’s another matter entirely. Obama is 46 years old. I think that means he missed the draft during Vietnam, and isn’t our Army an “all-volunteer” army as our current administration continually reminds us? If serving in the armed forces was a pre-requisite for an elected official, then George Bush, Dick Cheney, Fred Thompson, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Dennis Hastert, Newt Gingrich, John Ashcroft, Karl Rove, Phil Gramm, Tom Delay, and a host of others, would never have been elected to office.

Yes, I am an Obama supporter, but that isn’t the reason I’m defending him here. The reason is that this upcoming presidential election is probably one of the most important of our lifetime, and no matter who you support, you should base your actions on facts, not rumors or email smears. Some of you are going to believe what you want to believe and I know that this won’t change your mind. But others might realize that you can’t believe everything you read in an email, or what you see on the evening news, and you might want to take just a couple of minutes to look things up for yourself.

If you’ve sent emails like “Obama is a Muslim” or “Obama won’t salute the flag” to some that aren’t on the list above or emails similar, I hope you’ll forward this one just like you forwarded the last one. To make a monumental decision like who you want to run our country and how you want the world to view us should be based on the issues and policies and not if someone wears a flag pin or not, or if someone’s wife plagiarizes cookie recipes.

And to whoever originated this email, thanks for inspiring me to find out the truth for myself, base my decisions on facts and to have the inclination to email everyone back to correct the record.

Thanks for reading – and please, forward this to anyone you know to correct the record. You wouldn’t want them to think you were a liar, would you?

By the way, I’m still waiting for my $100,000 check signed by Bill Gates.

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I would ask you that if you are reading this and haven't received my e-mail personally (which is traveling worldwide at this very second!) that you please copy and paste and send to your friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, pen pals, softball buddies, bowling team, garden club, movie club, book club or next door neighbor.

I'm sure they'd like to find out the truth for a change.