I use to believe just about everything that looked real. You know, all those letters that tell you "this solider did xyz", "this person went to court and won their silly xyz case, how stupid are we" type of letter, and of course, all those "pass this along so we can find this poor missing child", those really had me filling in addresses for forwarding really fast, as my heart strings went twang! That, however, changed when my Mom sent me a forward, one that I had previous knowledge of. It actually had a link on it, one that said, "here's the proof that this is true". The problem was, I thought I knew that it was untrue, so I checked out this Snopes link, the one that they provided as proof of their supposed truth. Guess what? That link, as well as others I found on my own, actually proved that the letter was a fake! I can't tell you how upset I was! My Mother had sent that letter to ALL of her friends. The person who had sent it to her had sent it to ALL their friends, and so on and so forth. I was livid! From that point on, I vowed to researched each and every forward (of that type) that I even considered passing along. For a while I researched each of the emails that I received, for edification and fun, but that quickly became too burdensome, so "delete" became a good friend!
At any rate, I have now received a troublesome forward from my Mom. It originated from the American Family Association, had links of "proof", and was a fascinating subject matter (in my opinion). With my antenna tweaked, I followed all the links, reading each post, and I even looked up other on-line sources so that I could read more. Since I do not watch the news on television, I sometimes am unaware of current issues. However, I often find that I am not alone that "unaware" boat, in fact, there are even television news watchers in there!
I firmly believe that we need to become more knowledgeable and involved with our governments workings, actively helping to shape the policies that affect us as a Nation, and as individuals. This requires more from us than just voting in Presidential elections. We may hear the large policy debates, but the details of those policies, all of the "true", small print, hidden on page 1026 lines of the policies are usually not known by us, the public. We remain ignorant of the details, and, while we may like it now, in the end, what we don't know CAN hurt us!
Back to the letter I received, the headline that caught my eye was; "ObamaNet - Government issued Internet ID card required for all Americans" Then it said; "The government will be able to track every web site you visit, every keystroke you send, every purchase you make, every blog comment, and every Facebook and Twitter post." Shocking, disturbing, and unwanted in my book, so I continued to read and click links, where I clicked more links and read more. The long and the short of it? I found some wording in the original letter to be slightly misleading, but that could be chalked up to a matter of interpretation and belief, so basically I found it to be it truthful. The potential, long-term implications are very disturbing, which is why I am making this, my Frankly Speaking Friday subject matter.
I have copied the letter and the links are active, so you can follow them if you so choose. They actually make it very easy to contact representatives, whether you agree or disagree, if you follow their link it will discern who your representatives are (just put in your zip code) and then it asks if you want to contact them. Simply check the box by the name, and fill in the comment box. The comment box is pre-designed with a statement that you can leave as is, edit, or completely erase. That makes the contact link good, no matter which side you come down on! So, please read the following, and follow the link(s). Then send your opinion, no matter what it is, to your Washington Representatives. This is a VERY fast and VERY easy way for you to Be involved!
| "January 20, 2010 Dear Friend, The Washington Times is warning that the White House cybersecurity adviser and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke are drawing up "ObamaNet," President Obama's mandate for what amounts to a national ID card for the Internet. President Obama wants to establish passwords for every citizen to centralize your personal information. Instead of logging onto Facebook or one's bank using separate passwords established with each individual company or web site, you will be required to use the government-issued password. According to the Washington Times , here are the problems with "ObamaNet":
. TAKE ACTION Your elected officials can stop President Obama and the Federal government from prying into the personal lives of American citizens. Email your members of Congress today , asking them to issue a public statement in opposition to President Obama's plan to issue government-based Internet ID cards.
It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.
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