Wading out into the political fray

I NEVER involve myself in heated political "discussions" - partly because I despise argumentative conflict and partly because I think these "discussions" are usually just ways for people to air their opinions without anyone's opinions really being affected, except perhaps to reinforce their own rightness. However, today I just had to speak up.

I received this email today from a respected friend, whose political views and mine are apparently diametrically opposed. It was one of those mailings sent out to several people in the friend's contact list - probably to those considered of the same viewpoint. All email senders' and recipients' names have been removed.

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“Subject: Way over the line

Can you believe this?

KEEP MILITARY MEMBERS OUT OF CHURCH !!!! You're Kidding Me!!
DISGRACEFUL !!!

Sent by a Retired Vice Admiral of Va.

"I wanted to give you all some disturbing information on our
wonderful president. I work with the Catch-A-Dream Foundation
which provides hunting and fishing trips to children with
life-threatening illnesses. This past weekend we had our annual
banquet/fundraiser event in Starkville.

"As a part of our program, we had scheduled Sgt. 1st Class Greg Stube,
a highly decorated U.S. Army Green Beret and inspirational
speaker who was severely injured while deployed overseas and
didn't have much of a chance for survival to come.

“Greg is stationed at Ft. Bragg , NC and received permission
from his commanding officer to come speak at our function.
Everything was on go until Obama made a policy that
NO U.S. SERVICEMAN CAN SPEAK AT ANY FAITH-BASED
PUBLIC EVENTS ANYMORE.

“Needless to say, Greg had to cancel his speaking event
with us. Didn't know if anyone else was aware of this new
policy. Wonder what kind of news we all will receive next.

“You're just starting to see the Obamanation. Your religion
is on the list next??? I don't know about you, but this
makes me furious.

“This is just how the Nazis did it in the 30's, slowly,
one step at a time. If you don't see the similarities,
you are truly blind.”

This was my response:

Dear fellow citizens,

I rarely respond to or get into a conversation with anyone regarding emails such as this. I hate conflict-based discussions regarding issues that seem to me to be very inflammatory, such as the one mentioned in this email message. However, I feel a very strong urge to say something about this today.

I would like to tell you up front that I am a person who has been a believer in Jesus Christ, in the Protestant Christian tradition, since I was six years old. (I am nearly 58.) I believe that we live in the greatest country on the planet - and I have spent time in several other countries, so I have first-hand experience with other cultures, customs, and political situations. I love traveling to other countries and experiencing all the wonderful differences, as well as seeing how we, this race of human beings, share some important similarities as well. But I always love coming back to America.

Additionally, I personally know some of you receiving this email, others only by name, and some of you, not at all. I also know at least one family represented here has, or had, a son/brother/perhaps other relative in the military currently or recently. I have a great deal of respect and gratitude for the political environment we enjoy in this country, partly due to those who serve in the military, which protects our rights to express our opinions openly. I am also persuaded to believe that most of you receiving this message may feel that the content is true, and that it is just one more example of the terrible fate that has befallen our country with the advent of Barak Obama's presidency. I may be wrong about that.

However, when I am confronted with messages of this type, I tend to want to step back and evaluate the situation, and see if the content may have been misconstrued, or if there is additional information which may also come to light. So, I simply Googled the following:

"Obama policies about NO U.S. SERVICEMAN CAN SPEAK AT ANY FAITH-BASED PUBLIC EVENTS ANYMORE."

What surfaced was a 27-page, 267-results list. Granted, not every one dealt specifically with this alleged situation, and I did not read every single word of each one, but all had something to do with Obama or policies or some combination of words in my query. I did find this exact story repeatedly put forth and opined about in some fashion. I also found results which refuted this alleged situation, backed up with information from the Department of Defense.

If you have read this far, perhaps you are willing to consider this additional - and in my opinion, more accurate - reporting of the actual situation in question.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/faithbased.asp


This is just one of the Google results with information detailing the entire, actual situation and event in Mississippi. Or you could do your own search.

It is not my desire to stir up more dialogue conflagration! But this is, for me, a definitive proclamation that we need to check our facts and the entire context of a situation before we make assumptions based only, perhaps, on information received from someone we know - and may trust implicitly - but who may be ill-informed. (Case in point, the last few days' uproar concerning an excerpt from Shirley Sherrod's speech - taken out of context.)

Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Pharis

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So, now I've said something in a public forum, to specific people, about a differing political viewpoint. Don't know how comfortable I feel with this, but I'm glad I did it. And I think I may be able to wade out a little deeper in the future.