Time for a Bogus E-Mail Debunking

I got this e-mail yesterday, and usually just role my eyes and delete them, but occasionally I just must respond. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual issue at hand, but the supporting evidence. If you take a view, please be honest with the facts. It's the reason you should take a view in the first place. I can respect people that I disagree with when I know they have thought about their position and have a reason for holding it. I don't respect people I even agree with when they use falsehoods to support their claim, or have massive egos about it and are unwilling to examine the other side. Seriously, I think I pay more attention to the attitude people hold an opinion with more than the actual opinion. I think that says more about character.

Here is the e-mail:

Interesting about Universal Health Care

The actress Natasha Richardson died after falling skiing in
> Canada . It took eight hours to drive her to a hospital. If
> Canada had our healthcare she might be alive today. We now
> have helicopters that would have gotten her to the hospital
> in 30 minutes. Obama wants to have our healthcare like
> Canada's and England's.
>
> In England anyone over 59 cannot receive heart repairs or
> stents or bypass because it is not covered as being too
> expensive and not needed.
>
> Looks like Obama is sure keeping his word ****CHANGES. We
> better have out funerals paid up, may be needing it sooner
> rather than later with no Dr's on our side to keep us
> healthy. What will this world be like in another 20 YEARS
> WHEN OUR KIDS ARE READY FOR RETIREMENT? SAD!!!
>
> Please do not let Obama sign senior death warrants
> Everybody that is on this mailing list is either a senior
> citizen, is getting close or knows somebody that is.
>
>
> Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least)
> of the "stimulus" bill includes provisions for
> extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens..
> The author of this part of the bill, former senator and tax
> evader, Tom Daschle was credited today by Bloomberg with
> the following statement.
>
>
> Bloomberg: Daschle says "health-care reform will not
> be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the
> conditions that come with age instead of treating
> them."

>
> If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember
> that Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan
> that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are
> guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject
> to this new law if it passes.

>
> Please use the power of the Internet to get this message
> out. Talk it up at the grassroots level.... We have an
> election coming up in one year and nine months. We have
> the ability to address and reverse the dangerous direction
> the Obama administration and it allies have begun and in the
> interim, we can make their lives miserable. Lets do
> it!
>
> If you disagree, don't do anything


Well I disagreed with the whole tone and the blatant falsehoods in the e-mail, so I responded back:

I am not offering an opinion on health care, but I am on the veracity of this e-mail. This is full of scare tactics and worse is completely untrue. If someone is going to fight against a government policy they need to do it on informed merit, not ridiculous made up hullabaloo. It actually hurts the cause one is fighting for. There are many good reasons to be against state run health care and neither of these examples of why because they are both blatantly false.

Here is an excerpt from the Associated Press article regarding Natasha Richardson's death found at http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2009/03/20/autopsy_Natasha_Richardson.html

Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company that sent paramedics to the Mont Tremblant resort, told The Globe and Mail newspaper that he reviewed the dispatch records and the first 911 call came at 12:43 p.m. Monday.

Coderre said medics arrived at the hill 17 minutes later. But the actress refused medical attention, he said, so ambulance staffers turned and left after spotting a sled taking the still-conscious actress away to the resort’s on-site clinic.

At 3 p.m., a second 911 call was made — this time from Richardson’s luxury hotel room — as her condition deteriorated. An ambulance arrived nine minutes later.

“She was conscious and they could talk to her,” Coderre said. “But she showed instability.”

The medics tended to her for a half-hour before transporting her to a hospital a 40-minute drive away.

Seriously, is this the best reason to be against state run health care? Because someone came up with a bogus story about Natasha Richardson's death and England's health care system (I could find nothing that backed up this, and considering England is a developed nation with free speech and a large population of 59 and over, I am lead to believe this is bunk).

The major problem in political discussion is that people will take a point of view and then use whatever they can to back it up. This is lazy and irresponsible. Look at the facts and reality of the situation, and come to a conclusion that is not either party sponsored, because the Republicans are right on some things and wrong on others, and that goes for the Democrats as well. Let truth pick a party instead of party pick your truth.

Secondly, the logical jump from using England's health care as an example to look to and jumping to it being an exact copy (if the whole age 59 thing is true) is extremely tenuous. Seriously, what politician would go for that in the US? Seriously!

I write this not as a political statement, because I don't know how I feel about state health care because it is a huge convoluted issue (as most issues in politics are, and both parties loudly spout overly simplistic answers that don't work), and using lies to support a point only hurts one's position. We are Christians and should be in the business of Truth at all costs, even if it makes us look at things differently, is unpopular, or even hurts our point of view.

May our opinions be informed by reality, not our reality informed by our opinions.

I'm tired of getting untrue political e-mails, especially ones that can be debunked in a 3 minute google search.

I will be glad to discuss this further with you, but I cannot take part in accepting lies and not calling them out when I see them.

In Christ,
Tim

Until we are willing to hold to the reality of a situation and stop demonizing the opposing side, and even acknowledge when the other side has a point, we will get no where. Demonizing others brings you closer to being a demon yourself. The Holocaust happened because a bunch of people believed the demonizing of the Jews, and who in the end were the demons?

P.S. As a sidenote, where are these Canadians that are so complaining about their health care system? All I hear is Americans talking about Canadians that hate it and come here for treatment. The Canadians I talk to (admittedly I haven't had many conversations about health care, but it has come up) really don't seem to mind it at all. The point is I hear Americans complain about Canadian health care, not Canadians.