Get Your Facts Straight!

I try not to blog about political type issues, although it’s hard, because I do try to stay informed about current topics, and I love to discuss these issues with others. However, I’m not sure that my blog is an appropriate place to talk about these things.

Today however, I’m going to talk (somewhat) about a legal case. But I’m going to try to talk about it without getting specific, because this post is not really about the case itself, but about people forming opinions without having all the facts.

There is a legal case that has received a good bit of attention over the past few years. There’s been a recent development that’s once again put it in the media spotlight. Recently, I was somewhere where a group of people were discussing this case, and they were outraged by what they considered an injustice. I mean these people were pissed. I almost expected one of them to say, "Let’s drive down to (such-and-such state), picket in the street, and start a riot!"

During the course of the conversation, one of them said, "According the law, xxx." And they were completely wrong. The law does not say xxx, it says zzz (boy, it’s hard to talk about this without giving specifics!). One issue which they had failed to take into account--the laws do vary somewhat by state. And then it became apparent that they were missing important pieces of information about the case. Information that had the potential to change everything.

I’m a firm believer in everyone’s right to have an opinion, even if their opinion is in direct contrast with my own :) But, please get your facts straight. Make an effort to obtain all the facts, and the correct facts, before you form an opinion.

And in this case, obtaining all the facts wasn’t that difficult because it’s been reported in the media many times. All they had to do was goggle it and take the time to study it.