"Hair-on-fire" emails revisited.

I spent 33 years in a classroom. My "stock in trade" was information, and I worked hard to make sure every bit of information I gave my students was correct. That's why misinformation offends me so deeply, as I said before in my first post about "hair-on-fire" emails, which can be found here.

I received another one of those "hair-on-fire" emails today. A member of our group received it from someone they know, and they passed it on to me thinking I might be interested.

I have removed all of the information from the "header" which might identify any of the individuals. You can click here to see the email as a pdf file.

I have seen this email before, but it looks like someone has added photos of a disfigured marine to add emotional emphasis to the piece.

This email happens to be one of the snopes.com "hot 25." Here's the link to their page concerning this email:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp

Snopes gives the full details, but here's the short version:

1) Children and staff of U.S. Congressmen are NOT exempt from paying back student loans.

2) It is NOT true that members of Congress can retire at full pay after one term. 

3) It is NOT true that members of Congress are exempt from paying into Social Security. [This claim is not made in this particular email, but there are several versions which do contain this claim.]

4) Members of Congress are NOT exempt from prosecution for sexual harassment.

5) Congress did NOT try to exempt itself from the health care reform legislation.

Most of these emails are passed on by well-meaning people who see a perceived wrong and want to help correct it. They probably received it from a friend or relative, and have no reason to doubt the claims being made. For a minority--I hope--the claims fit their world view and are passed on with glee.


Here's a rule I'd like to suggest: When you receive an email which you are asked to pass on, take the time to verify its truth yourself. If you find it's not true, or you don't have the time to check it out, don't pass it on.


It's 15 months until our next national election, and misinformation is all around us--from all political parties. I want to talk about the nuances of this misinformation in the next couple of blog posts.