The other day I received a forward that firmly caught my attention. Most people who have email receive forwards from time to time. Forwards that I receive are usually humorous, artistic and positive. This Christmas there were many forwards making the rounds and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It's rather ingenious how Christmas topics are made from dogs, for example. Most of these I forward to people I know who would appreciate the humor or art.
This week I received an pathetic forward from someone who mistakenly thought I might agree with the negative message. Some of you may have received the same forward long before I became aware of it.
The forward was called "I'm Sixty-three and I'm Tired." It started out with a whiny pathetic little background to suck you into feeling sorry for this guy. He claims to have worked steadily except for five months after he finished college while he was looking for a job. Then he states that he has worked continuously since he was eighteen. Now a bigger red flag went up. He must have been a genius to finish college at eighteen!
After that he just goes on to list the things he is tired of. He doesn't like paying taxes for those who are too lazy to work. Rather selfish guy!
He doesn't like Muslims who do all kinds of dastardly actions. So he paints all Muslims as evil. So okay the guy is a racist.
The writer goes on with a litany of complaints. He has to work because the recent economic turmoil has eliminated his savings. He was a Veit Nam veteran. He was a five term state congressman. None of this adds up. If he's accomplished all these things he should not be in a position where he cannot retire. So I became skeptical of his whole message which was one of racism. He tried the nicy nicy routine but ended up looking like an idiot.
He's fooled many people as his piece is forwarded very often and has probably been going around for years.
So I decided to reply to the sender who I know. We bickered back and forth a couple of times when he decided that he didn't want to discuss the issue any longer. He could see that he was on shaky ground and couldn't defend his position so the best thing for him was to dodge the issue.
I am usually fairly tolerant of other views particularly if they are argued with some logic and backed by some research. This forward had none of these conditions and I couldn't let it go for a free ride. Ideas that are supported by inaccurate background should not be tolerated and all of us should stand up and confront such feeble rants.
