I have a huge problem with “soundbite” news and out of context quotes being used to fuel arguments on any side of any agenda.  I was recently sent a chain letter e-mail link by my mother which quoted House Speaker Pelosi as saying, 

“We see it as an entrepreneurial bill,” Pelosi said, “a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.” 

Obviously, the reactions to this from blue-collar America were hate-filled outcries to “hippy, creative types” that should “just get a job at McDonalds.”

But do we have anything to go on?  Do we know what this actual law, or bill, even is?  We have NO idea what she is talking about.  I’d actually love to know  because A) that sounds ridiculous, sure, but also, B), if this is the case, how is it being done, why, and how might a person take advantage of this and what are the problems with it for America?

I want to provide an example for why this kind of reporting is ABSURD, MISLEADING, AND RIDICULOUS.  How it promotes HATE and ANGER for little other than sensationalism.  How America cannot see PROGRESS if it does not ACTUALLY TAKE TIME TO THINK in these situations.

Recently, a black man said the following in a speech:

“”It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass … Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening…”

Sounds like this guy is promoting racial violence, maybe even good ol’ fashioned terrorism.  We should probably lock this guy up, send him to jail, and have Francis the overweight felon bend him over the bedframe, no?

It’s actually a quote without any context from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” Speech.

Funny how important context is.