The Legacy of 9-11 #239
By Hank Silverberg
Where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor? Where were you when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot? Where were you when the towers came down on 9-11?
These questions are generational, but each of them can evoke emotions in millions of Americans. Such cataclysmic events often define the collective memories of a generation and have a major impact on their lives and society as a whole.
I remember distinctly what I was doing as a 9-year- old when I heard about Kennedy. I was in the fourth grade and going home from school for lunch. It ruined my pending birthday party and hooked me on the news and world events ever since.
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| (9-11 Memorial NYC) |
I teach college students about public speaking, communication and now this semester, journalism as well. It dawned on me this past week that most of those students were yet to be born in 2001 or were small infants at the time. They have grown up in a very different world than I did, but then again, my world was much different than my parent's world before December 7th ,1941 or November 22nd, 1963.
Remembering the past is very important for the future. I will repeat a favorite quote I have used in this blog before: "Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it."
But it's important that the past we remember is as accurate as possible, otherwise the lesson wouldn't mean anything.
In this age of conspiracy theories, the internet and politicians who tell very big lies, it is important that we watch closely over what our children are learning about the past.
Watch closely what your local school board is doing with history curriculum, or what books they want banned from libraries. We can't let them distort the past by removing the stains of history or overstating the success stories. Question anyone who tries to distort the immediate past that you lived through, because you know the truth.
If you hear someone spreading disinformation don't let it slide just to be amiable.
Here are just four distortions I won't let slide, and I will challenge the disinformation every time I hear it.
1) Oh, the Civil War wasn't about slavery, it was about state's rights, and it was a noble cause. (False)
2) Oh, we never landed on the Moon. They faked it. (False)
3) 9-11 was a false flag operation. Our Deep State government did it. (FALSE)
4) The 2020 election was rigged. Trump really won. (False)
You can stop laughing now. There are people who believe those myths and many more. If you let those or even smaller lies pass, more will follow. The truth will die, and our individual and collective rights will die with it.
Fox Lawsuit
Speaking of the truth, Fox News is facing some big trouble in court in a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems --the elections machine and technology company that handled much of the 2020 election.
The company is seeking $1.6 billion in a defamation lawsuit that claims it was "irreparably harmed" by Fox News for its broadcasting of conspiracy theories and wild claims about election fraud.
In order to win its defamation case, Dominion has to prove first that the information about its company was false, and secondly that Fox News knew that but kept making the claims anyway.
This past week, NPR reported that there's a memo from a Fox News producer to his colleagues just after the election warning them that Fox host Jeanine Pirro was pulling conspiracies about election fraud from the dark web. The producer suggested Pirro, who is close to Donald Trump, should be taken off the air, but that was apparently ignored.
Pirro had claimed on November 14th of 2020 that "The Dominion Software system had been tagged as one allegedly capable of flipping votes" without anything to back up that assertion. She apparently got that information from one of the Trump campaign's lawyers, Sidney Powell, who was later sanctioned by a federal judge for making false claims. The latest move in court is an effort to put Pirro's text exchanges with the Trump camp into the record.
Other hosts on Fox News had picked up on what Pirro was saying and repeated it often. Several Fox personnel, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, have already testified under oath in the lawsuit.
Fox executives publicly say they will prevail, telling NPR all they did was report that Trump was making the allegations. But what Fox hosts often said goes way beyond that.
Fox producer's warning against Jeanine Pirro surfaces in Dominion defamation suit - NewsBreak
The stakes in this case are extremely high for both companies. It will be interesting to see what happens with this case. It will set precedent for the future.
Normally I would side with the news organization and its First Amendment claim. But when this case is finished, we may find out that Fox knew they were reporting lies and there's no excuse for that.
What Goes Up--IS Coming Down.
You probably remember all the hoopla as the summer began over the price of gasoline. It was over $5 a gallon for several weeks and it was all Joe Biden's fault. No one could ever explain why
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| (Pump Price on Sept 10) |
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All of this occurred before any hurricanes have come ashore this fall. I suspect when one does come into the Gulf Coast, disrupts production and spikes the price again, the GOP will start blaming Biden again. They don't seem to have any policy of their own, other than to negate anything suggested by Democrats.
Happy Holiday! Bah Humbug!
The leaves have started to turn colors across Virginia this week and I am sure New England is a glorious shade of orange and red by now. Fall is here. Kids are starting to talk about Halloween costumes in their first few weeks back to school. I always look forward to this time of year with cool breezes and moderate temperatures and baseball playoffs. That's why I did a double take and got a bit annoyed while shopping at a local club box store. Why? Take a look at the picture on the left.
Before spending more money on what you think you really want to for those holidays, you'd better wait and see what the price of a Thanksgiving turkey will be this year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index says the cost of poultry and related products is up 17.3% this year over last year, and that is without any major outbreak of the Avian Flu so far this season.
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/will-there-be-a-turkey-shortage-this-thanksgiving/
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
"NO ZEROS — LOWEST POSSIBLE GRADE IS 50%."
That quote comes from a parents-teachers handbook at West Gate K-8 school in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The teachers are supposed to follow this grading guidelines. It seems a new teacher filling in at West Gate was fired last week because she handed out zeros to some of her 5th grade students who failed to do any work on a project. They didn't turn in ANYTHING. The school's principal and some of its teachers say the policy exists because some students prefer to take the zero rather than do the assignment. Instead, those teachers work with the students to try to get something out of the assignment. They say zero puts too many of the students too far behind and they can never catch up.
But here's the problem with that. SHOWING UP is half of all things in life. If you don't turn in anything, you are not showing up. Giving them 50% for not showing up and then working with them to get a higher score by turning it in eventually negates the concept of earning a grade. It's not state policy or even that district's policy to not give a zero. It's only the policy at that one school. But it is just another example of the failure of education in wacky Florida. I deal with college students, and they know that if you skip the assignment, you get a zero.
(My book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:
HankSilverberg@gmail.com for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature. )
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796
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