Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I Promise Not To Delete Post Today!!!

Disclaimer: Topic is not about knitting today but about the unsolicited political e-mails I have been receiving.

Yesterday I wrote a lengthy post and quickly deleted it. Some of you may have been able to read a portion of it if you have Google Reader. I was afraid that perhaps it was a little “too strong”.

It seems that I am being inundated with anti-Obama e-mails. Also, see
Lizzie’s post for today regarding a similar situation.

Ok, I’m proud to say that I voted for Obama. If you didn’t, but you did exercise your right to vote as an American, great!!! I am not about to try to convince you about the pros and cons of any candidate unless you ask me. I may not agree with everything regarding our president but I do respect him and trust him.

So, I just don’t understand why people who barely know me and probably couldn’t even tell you how many children I have, feel compelled to send me garbage ….trashing Obama with no supporting documents to back what they are saying. I am now taking the practice of if there is an FW: in the subject line of an e-mail, it gets deleted and will soon be filtered to do so automatically.

Yes, we do have freedom of speech but there is a measure of responsibility that goes with that. I watched the unfolding events happening in Iran with some skepticism this past weekend, accepting the pictures but wary of the “tweets” that CNN seems so proud to promote these days. Anyone can pretend to be whoever they want to be and say what they want behind a cloak.

I don’t understand why the topic of politics would even come up at a family holiday dinner. But it has for me. Of course, the guest was a “drop in”, creating an air of uneasiness and then left. He bashed Obama but would not say who he had voted for. So please……….just shut up!

So, yesterday, out of curiosity, I Googled myself. Try it with your name. You might be surprised.

This is what I (deleted)
(ß-click) for myself. You might say that there is more than one person with my name but it also has my middle initital. I was quite active campaigning and was interviewed by several TV/radio stations. So someone apparently decided to comment on my behalf on this web site with misinformation.

I've deleted the above to protect my privacy in case there are "crazies" out there. Just to note that if you are a registered voter and someone knows what town you live in, your address is a public record and they can find you.

I never would have written the above. (quote has been deleted)

Now really…………..some people need to get a life.

7 comments:

  1. My mom always said, "Two things never to bring up....religion or politics."

    I just got done Googling myself. (That doesn't sound good, does it? LOL!) Not much on the Net. A reference to Facebook & a church reference. I either live a dull life or a non-existing one! LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, I jusy Googled my name, just my kennel name and the breeders of my first show dog were listed and facebook.
    I'm getting so I just don't open or forward them any more. Sometimes I might forward cute animal pictures, but I'm trying not to send junk.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know, I was getting forwarded emails that were doing things like calling Obama a terrorist, and I finally took a deep breath and answered the person who'd sent it: I quoted McCain's telling the old woman at the debate that no, no, Obama is a good man, and said that McCain could say that with authority because he knew Obama because he'd worked with him.

    Then I pointed out that the elderly woman who'd written the original email, and the audience she was writing to, were eligible for Medicare, while denying those same benefits to others and railing that the idea of doing so was going to destroy our great nation.

    And I ended by saying Obama is our elected President with grave responsibilities on his shoulders, and therefore I pray for him. As I did for his predecessors. Which is true.

    I did not add that I think his immediate one did horrifying, horrifying things in my name as an American and that I prayed for him in spite of what he was doing, not because of it.

    But the thing is, I never got another forwarded email from there. I like to think I got the person to think with more compassion. If that helps stop the spread of those poisonous emails...I can only hope.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sorry people were sending you 'testy' emails. Whew ! Gotta be careful these days. I just recently got rid of a blog-stalker or at least I hope I've gotten rid of the stalker. In any case, I love your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am sorry you are receiving nasty emails. it makes me very nervous when I think someone out there could probably find me if I put to much info on the internet. I googled both my Maiden and married name and found so many people with my name scary.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good for you, girlfriend!

    Now you know why I used a pseudonym on-line. I had a stalker years ago and decided that was not going to happen again.

    I'm not on Google. Maybe because I don't use my name publicly, and/or I changed my name when I got divorced. My married name is so early in on-line social things that when it's googled, none of them are me. Even the pseudonym I used way back then is being used by someone else.

    I think it's borderline rude to bring up politics during a family dinner or in a group you've just met. Someone tried Obama bashing at our knitting group's first meeting. Fortunately she was someone that just repeated stuff she heard someone else say, and I being a politic junkie since the election, handed her seven sentences showing her "the other side" and she shut up not having any information to back herself up on. Other than dominating every conversation she's in with her own stuff, she's not as annoying... NOT!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love your blog, it's a wonderful visit each time I come here. Very sorry for your troubles, there seems to be so many people that forget we are all just people, more alike than not.
    Wishing you a sunny day there!

    ReplyDelete