Just today I received an e-mail purportedly sent originally by Bill Cosby titled: "I'm 76 and Tired". In it this much loved comedian and activist appears to be making serious and very negative statements across a broad spectrum of issues, most of which when studied appeared to be out of character for him.
The blog of the Conservative Hideout Rapid Fire , self-proclaimed as “the best conservative content on the net” published it in full with the preface:
“Worth reading. This should be required reading for every man, woman and child in the UK , United States of America , Canada , the European union , Australia and New Zealand etc.” I assume from this list that people in Africa, the Middle East, India and China need not bother
I took a few minutes (an overstatement, more like a few seconds) to fact check and found on Mr Cosby’s personal web page, a strongly worded denial of authorship and a plea not to send this to other readers.
With that as my evidence, I offered the following to my “sender” and to all the others that he kindly listed on his e-mail.
Subject: A rebuttal to: "I'm 76 and Tired" by Bill Cosby You may wish to use the link below and read the message. If you do, please do as Mr Cosby asks. Oh, and for the record, he was born in July 1937 so that makes him 74.
http://billcosby.com/site/2011/09/if-you-got-the-bogus-email-its-time-to-hit-delete.html
If on the other hand you chose to continue sending known false statements through the internet cosmos, I would encourage you to consider spending your hours in the fiction section of the public libraries where you can find similarly convincing although illusory accounts of documented Kenyan birth records, forged birth certificates, proof or religious preferences, and of course compelling evidence that at least three institutions of higher learning participated in a fraud.
Then again, we must force ourselves to remember we are surrounded by works of fiction in this special part of our theoretical reference library, the evidentiary volumes that include evidence that the earth is not only flat but is at the center of the universe; that no one has actually walked on the moon but that aliens truthfully did land in Arizona and are now happily ensconced in Nevada.
On these shelves there surely will be “proof” that indeed LBJ killed JFK and probably for good measure Jack Ruby as well. Let’s not forget the Philadelphia Experiment or the Montauk Project or that the American bomb testing caused the Haitian earthquake. Volumes are to be found on these and so many other conspiracy deliberations.
Sometimes historical fiction is entertaining: People have enjoyed historical fiction since 800 BC when Homer wrote about the Trojan War in the Iliad and his equally popular “sequel” the Odyssey. Let’s jump ahead to Shakespeare who by his own admission played loose with historical facts but to a pretty good end. Closer to our time we think of a wonderful novel written not by a historian but by a journalist who wrote but one book in her lifetime, Gone With The Wind.
History or story? Maybe a little of both but on balance much more story. Fact is that true stories of war are not recommended reading.
All that aside, we are told that we live in the information age and for sure that appears to be factual. So, I am at a loss to see why even simple fact checking is ignored before mass distribution of information that even when first read appears to be a paradigm away from what you would expect to hear from the purported author.
On a personal note, however, there is one thing that I hope can be moved from historical fact to fiction: we continue to be told that Jackie stole home against Whitey Ford and Yogi missed the tag. Truth is clearly with Yogi on this one: he was out.
Just a few thoughts and thanks for listening or not as the case may be.
Dr Thomas Ignatius Hayes
16 March 2012
St Petersburg, Florida
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