Just cause you saw it on the Internet...

One of the things that really concerns me is some of the mail that gets forwarded without critique or examination. Last time I checked, Phunkidz, we were all given a brain and asked to be critically aware and discerning of truth. Check out the following item that was forwarded to S recently:

Don't accept the new dollar!
U.S. Government to Release New Dollar Coins
Please help do this... refuse to accept these when they are handed back to you. I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead..the lady just smiled and said way to go, so she had read this e-mail... please help out.

You guessed it 'IN GOD WE TRUST' IS GONE!!! If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!! This seems a small thing to many, but if we as a people turn our faces away from God by allowing the continued erosion of evidence of our country's commitment to our underlying faith, God will turn away his face from us.

DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE. Together we can force them out of circulation. Please send to all on your mail list !!

The nasty evil government is turning us all into Godless heathens. Omigosh, I'm going to write my congressperson right away. I am shocked and appalled and I'll forward this to everyone I know. Blah blah blah. I'm not here to talk about the separation of church and state, although I think that if you do a little research on the topic that you will find it is a critical and healthy part of any government. What I do want to ask you to do is to stop, think, and investigate. Is this message real? Just because it is in writing doesn't mean that it is true.

I always turn to a www.snopes.com, which is a kind of Myth Busters for urban legends, to get the scoop on things like this. Ok, a quick search for dollar coin and In God We Trust on that site brings up the following: false. Even though the face of the coin doesn't show the words the edge of the coin does!

Hmmm, why do people do this? Why do they pass on information without checking the source and doing some digging first? I think that it is human nature that when we see something plausible and outrageous that we look to vent the feeling right away. I think it dampens our common sense and makes us reactionary rather than critical.

So I'm asking all the Phunkidz to break this chain of senselessness. The next time you get something in email that riles you up please stop, think, and Ask Snopes. If it does turn out to be false, send a quick note back to the sender with a link to Snopes (and perhaps to this posting!).

Have you seen any other email chains like this? Perhaps like the kid who is dying of cancer and wants us to send him a postcard? Let me know in your comments to this post!