Pennies From Heaven

In honor of Abe Lincoln's 200th birthday, the U.S. Treasury has created four new designs, seen here, for our most beloved but perhaps most useless coin, the penny. I recently received a forwarded e-mail narrative (misspellings, poor grammar and all) from a friend about these new designs. My friend did not write the narrative below but forwarded it to me.



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THIS IS WHAT OUR NEW PENNIES WILL LOOK LIKE.
THANKS TO THE ACLU AND OTHER SIMILAR GROUPS THE WORDS "IN GOD WE TRUST" HAVE BEEN REMOVED.
WHEN ARE WE AS AMERICANS, GOING TO SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND STOP BOWING DOWN TO THOSE THAT TAKE OUR BELIEFS AND RIGHTS AWAY FROM US?
IF WE DON'T ACT SOON THEY WILL HAVE THE WORD "GOD" COMPLETELY ELIMINATED FROM OUR LANGUGE.
THEY'VE ALREADY STOPPED SCHOOL PRAYER, PRAYER AT SPORTING EVENTS AND NOW FROM OUR CURRENCY.
WHAT'S NEXT? WILL THEY OUTLAW PRAYER IN CHURCH?
WILL THEY OUTLAW THE SELL OF BIBLES?
TIME TO SPEAK UP BEFORE THE THE BELIEFS OF A FEW BECOME THE LAW.

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Indeed! I too am outraged, albeit for a completely different reason than that of the creator of this particular bit of paranoid bile.

But first, the fact. Yes, the penny is being re-designed but only the "tails side" not the "heads" side. "Heads" will still have the "In God We Trust" motto arching above Abe's profile, gigantic mole and all. This was not difficult to verify. Simply search "new penny" on the search engine of choice and there it is. Even FOX News got it right.

So, how does such a piece of misinformation, with its overt claim that the ACLU and "other similar groups" have secretly hatched an evil plot to erase God from the public domain, one penny at a time--with the apparent cooperation of the U.S. Treasury to boot--make it to my in-box and to tens of thousands of other in-boxes around the net?

Initially, someone had to write the crappola, although they could have made better use of their spell check software. The author could be (1) supremely ignorant and paranoid, (2) having a bit of fun at the expense of the supremely ignorant and paranoid or (3) intent on spreading divisive misinformation in an attempt to rally the supremely ignorant and paranoid to some cause, apparently which is to "speak up". Of course, speaking up on the penny issue would simply open one up to embarrassment sort of like Rosanne Roseannadanna. I'd advise against it.

Here's the issue that has my dander up--which begs the question, what the heck is a "dander" and why do we prefer to have it "down" instead of "up"?--I digress; someone who I know, someone who has made it onto my distribution list of e-mail contacts and friends, forwarded this bit of blather to me in an apparent and earnest attempt to recruit me to the speak up against the new penny design. Me!

No, I'm not an offended member of the ACLU, although that organization does some very worthwhile things while at the same time doing and saying some really silly things. Go figure. Neither do I object to the motto "In God We Trust" on our lucre, although, historically speaking, it is a rather recent addition to which Teddy Roosevelt objected strenuously but to no avail.

The reason that I received it was because the sender likely sent it to his or her entire contact list--10 others, 20 others, 50 others, more? Who knows? Certainly not all of the recipients of this one forward did likewise (I, for instance, forwarded it to no one) but there's a good chance that more than one recipient did and so on and so on. This stuff grows like mold in a bachelor's refrigerator.

The internet has put the power of communication in the hands of nearly all. This is a good thing with a dark side. The paranoid, the ignorant, the stupid, the crazed, the mean-spirited, the radical left, the unbending right and the merely careless now have much the same megaphone power as that formerly reserved for people who bought ink by the barrel or had access to the airways. We have more communication now--often better communication--but also mounds of bullshit.

I have no illusions that the B.S. will ever go away. My hope, however, is that the "merely careless" among us will begin to realize that forwarding unattributed, unverified and scurrilous information is an activity--and all too easy at that--that does not advance the common good and often retards it. If we are all to be "journalists" with the click of the "Send" key, then we have an obligation to our friends and contacts to send them information, not misinformation. For you readers who are paranoid, ignorant, stupid, crazed, mean-spirited, radically left or unbending right, and you know who you are you little dickenses (is that a word?) this admonition from Mother Brittain will likely go unheeded.

This rant does not condemn the forwarding of satire, The Onion headlines and newscasts, jokes (although some of my contacts are good taste challenged), videos of interest, family gossip that we all knew was true long before we heard it officially from a reliable cousin, interesting pictures (preferably undoctored but who can tell anymore?), irritating editorials from Paul Krugman or John Krauthammer or official notification that the sky is falling.

Bruce

www.brucebrittain.com