Misinformation

If you are reading this, you more than likely have a Facebook account or a Twitter account. Both are very useful tools for sharing information. Unfortunately, both are also very useful for spreading misinformation.

Occasionally, this misinformation can lead to instanced of localized hysteria. You've seen it. One friend posts some story they saw on someone else's wall and like a cancer, before too long, 10 of your friends have posted the same thing. Even if the story is debunked in the first comment, people will still post and comment as if it were true.

Social media is an increasingly powerful tool we have at our disposal, but it must be used responsibly. Sharing "bananas cure cancer" and "Abe Vigoda has died(for the 30th time)" without checking the facts, which are almost always readily available, makes you look bad, lose credibility and can sometimes cause more serious problems. It takes very little effort to determine the veracity of something you see on social media.

Don't you think if one third of Americans had indeed been "infected with cancer" from the polio vaccination, it would be a huge news story? If bananas were found to cure cancer, don't you think someone besides that guy you dated in high school would have the information? If Ted Cruz had announced he was running for President, don't you think his own social media pages and website would have information about it? Instead, they actually have detailed denials on the subject, right there, for anyone who cares to look for the facts.

When you post something on social media, without any comments regarding your position on the matter, what you are actually saying is, "I believe this to be true". When you speak to someone, face to face, it can be assumed that what you are saying is what you believe. Posts online are no different. You have the freedom to post or say whatever you desire to say(with limited exceptions). You also have a responsibility to not pass on misinformation. If you fail to act responibly, you may reap the negative rewards that go along with that, and you deserve to as well.

Sadly, most people won't learn the lesson they need to learn. Why not? Because there will be a line of people behind them eagerly waiting to pass on the misinformation. How can we stop this? You have to be someone who is willing to stand up and confront this garbage. You are more than able. Willing is the key.

I think most people will stand up for the truth if put in a position to do so. If the truth involves your reputation or that of your family, it is easy, right? If it is a truth that might affect you in a major way, financially for instance, it isn't hard to stand up for it. What if it were a truth that could affect the very heart of information technology?

People, en masse, tend to believe everything they see on news sources. Major news media has proven this over and over. More and more, television news is being replaced by online sources. It won't be too many years before the balance has completely shifted toward the internet. It already has for some demographics. If we can't trust what we read, what we read will become nothing but a tool for those who would have us to believe what they want to. This would be a disaster. I don't see the current state of information dissemination being too far removed from this reality. The ONLY way to combat this, short of some sort of horrible legislation that would ultimately do more harm than good, is for the common citizen to speak up every time they see garbage being spread.

You will be held up to be a trouble-maker. You will hear the arguments that the person spreading the lies are "well-intentioned", good people. You will hear that you are an agitator. You will lose friends. You will be flooded with garbage. You will have all the tools that those who spread misinformation have at their disposal thrown at you. For this reason, you must stand up to it.

It may seem like a small, innocuous thing to say something when you see some stupid internet meme being spread. In reality, it is a huge responsibility to do so. The truth is the truth. Whether we are talking about Abe Vigoda's health, the cure for cancer, or the coming of Jesus Christ, the truth is the truth! There are no shades of grey. Truth is a black and white issue. Stand up for it, no matter how small of a truth it seems to be.

Truth is worth preserving and if we don't do that, what do we have left? You can answer this question for yourself, If you don't stand up for truth, aren't you just as guilty as the one spreading the lie?

Audemus jura nostra defendere

Audemus jura nostra defendere

We Dare defend our rights! This is the motto of the State of Alabama. Taken from a poem by Sir William Jones, an eighteenth century English philologist titled "An Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus", also known as "What Constitutes a State". In that, he declares:

Men, who their duties know,But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow,And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain

It seems to be somewhat more common recently to question anyone who would dare quote or base opinions on that tired old document known as the Constitution of the United States of America. We've heard such dependence on and adherence to called into question by legislators at all levels, the President, courts, up to and including the Supreme court and of course, the media. We've even heard them question whether or not the Founders really meant what they said when they wrote it. 

I stand firm in my belief that not only did they mean what they said, but they were some of, if not the greatest visionaries the world has ever seen. They knew full well that we would encounter men who would make it their business to undo the freedoms that they expressed in their writings. The freedoms that Crispus Attucks, widely considered the first man to die in the American Revolution to Jamar Hicks, the most recent to die (as of this writing) in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, died for. The freedoms that roughly 2.75 millions Americans have died or been injured fighting to protect. The freedoms that have been and are now, systematically being rolled back, dismantled and outright abolished in many cases.

John Adams, a decade before the American Revolution, was already speaking of the necessity to defend our rights when he said: 

Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood. 

James Madison, in 1792, said:

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. 

We own our rights and we have the right to own them! A couple of days later, Madison wen on to say:

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own 

Our rights are to be protected by our government, not taken away!
There are so many wise words, far beyond the few I've quoted here on how important our rights are and to what extent we should go to protect them. 

You often hear the question, what would the founders do if they were alive today. I don't think that is difficult in the least to answer. Just read what they had to say. They would do everything in their power, which is well laid out in the Constitution, to return our rights to us and return our government to us, as it was designed, not this aberration that we have lording over us today. More than that, I think that the task they would face would be far less than that which we face, because they would have never let it become what it has. One things is for sure, they would wholeheartedly believe in the concept of audemus jura nostra defendere, we dare defend our rights!

Sam Adams summed it up well in 1771, when he said"

The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.

Not only should we dare to defend our liberty, but we have a duty to do so. A duty! We have a call to be responsible with our liberty, for it is not ours alone, we share it with our fellow men. If one of us shirks this duty, it diminishes the ability for other men to fight for theirs! We are at a place in history where it seems there are more people who are denouncing their responsibility to fight for their liberty than there are those who are standing up for it. If this trend continues, we as a nation will lose the ability to stand up and proclaim, audemus jura nostra defendere!

I dare, do you?
  

Courage

Recently, I saw this photo that really struck me:

As with any photo, there is a story behind it. It turns out neither the guy about to die, nor the executioners are anyone I'd associate with. The guy was a member of the German Communists who were defeated, rounded up and executed in 1919. The armed squad were German Socialists, who would eventually give rise to the National Socialists. You probably remember them as the Nazi Party. All of that being what it is, this photo still says so much. The young man is defiant. He looks less scared than some of those holding rifles to me. The message I get from this photo is, you could not kill my spirit, so you are forced to kill me instead.

Now I certainly hope I'm never put into a position like this, nor anyone else for that matter, but I wish more people had this man's attitude right now. Stand for what you believe in!

This photo reminded me of another historical photo that speaks to me in a very similar way.

In this huge crowd of people who may either believe in whatever Nazi propaganda they are hearing or not, there is one guy who is not capitulating. All of the others have given up. Not him. He stands there with his arms crossed just daring anyone to question why he is not saluting. There almost seems to be a human buffer around him because no one wants to be mistaken as being with him. Maybe they just want to avoid the errant shot. Whatever the reason, they stand in support of something that he perceives as evil. He is the only one willing to stand for what he believes in. Granted, some of the crowd may have been taken in, but almost all of them seem to be civilians. Most civilians at that time still held that status because they had not joined the Nazi party. That is what leads me to my conclusion that he is one of the few that is standing for what he truly believes. We don't know the exact fate of this man, but we do know this. Live or die, he had courage.

That brings me to one more photo that I absolutely love.

I know nothing about the history of this photo except that it appears to be from World War 2. I have imagined what appears obvious. The soldier being carried was wounded to the point of not being able to walk. He has also lost his rifle, either literally or from lack of ammunition or the ability to fire it. His buddy gave up his ability to fight in order to carry him, who knows how far, through ankle deep mud while still being accosted by the enemy. The injured soldier returns fire with his side arm.

This photo speaks to me on a couple of levels. First, you are not out of the fight until you are no longer able to fight. Never give up! Second, never leave a man behind. This guy is risking his own life to save his injured comrade. This photo is one of my favorites from World War 2. There are a lot of great photos out there, some depicting some incredibly important, transcendent and historical moments, but this one tells an incredible story. 

All three of these photos speak loudly to the value of human spirit. In the face of some of the most horrible situations men have ever faced and most of humanity will never face, courage shined through. We should take these example and be inspired by them. What our nation is facing right now is bad, no doubt about that. Are we, as individuals, facing situations as perilous as these four guys though? Well, that is debatable. In the present, probably not. But if we don;t have the courage to stand up fpr what we believe in, for what believe to be right, then we may as well be facing the same thing these guys faced. If we don;t stand now, we may actually face something like this in the future. I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but I would bet that none of these men felt they would have to face what they are facing in these photos 5 years before they were taken. I would imagine, based on these photos, if they did know what they would be facing, they would have stood even more firm in resistance. 

I don't know about you, but if there is a way to turn things around by standing up now for what I believe in, I find that much more appealing than having to stand up the way these men did, after the fact. You may not feel that you need to stand up now, but I wonder what you'll feel if you ever have to stand and face what these men faced. I much prefer the former over the latter.

Abraham Lincoln had something to say about this. Consider these two quotes and then determine for yourself, where and how you stand.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

 

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.