Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Shame on Ashley!!!

I received a very well intentioned e-mail from my cousin yesterday about a missing girl. I did a quick Google search and quickly found out this was a hoax. I responded to my cousin and told him and everyone else on the list that if you get an e-mail like this, the best thing to do is check places like Urban Legends or Snopes to see if they are real or not.

Usually with these kinds of things people are fishing for e-mail addresses. So, even if you feel you have a real e-mail it is best to copy and paste the pertinent info into a new post and send that along.

So once I found that this was indeed a hoax (a joke by a girl in Philadelphia) I sent an e-mail to my cousin and all on his list to let them know. Below is a great response to use should you ever see something like this again.


Everyone,

This is one of those things, I have two baby sisters, not that they are babies anymore, but nevertheless, I have two younger sisters. When I see an email like this I never hesitate, and I certainly don't think to check, cross reference, or research whether or not the said email is true. I see a missing little girl who obviously could not defend herself against a violent malicious world and my heart simply goes straight out to her and her family.

I try very hard not to forward or send spam email to all of my friends and family. When I hear, when I find out that something like this is a hoax it breaks my heart. I think about all the real missing and abducted children out there who might have a chance at being saved, and when I find out that pranksters are playing a practical joke it just kills me.

It is because of emails like this that people become skeptical and pessimistic. This is also the reason that these kind of emails do not get sent on or forwarded.

The sad truth of the matter is this, like the fable of old about the boy who cried WOLF, after you hear it so many many times and you find out the "cry" is not real, you stop to believe.

So when the time comes, when a child REALLY goes missing, no one cares, and no one listens.

This is the damage that these fakers have done to all the missing children, to all the parents of those children, to the community at large, and to all the people of the world.

The next time we hear "CRY WOLF," we will never believe, and that one time, that one time will be the time it actually matters. That will be the one time we as a world internet community could have made a difference.

But, like I said, No One will believe the alert is true.

So here and now I ask all of you to send this forward so that we can make the guilty parties involved actually feel guilty about what they have done.

My cousin was the one who did a little research before passing this on and found out the truth; THIS ALERT IS AND WAS A SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let us all hope and pray that the decency of humanity will never let this happen again.

Just imagine if this girl was your daughter.........your sister.............your friend. How would you FEEL if you knew someone out there in the world had ruined the chance of her survival because of a hoax???

Let us all stand up right now, stand proud, and stand true. Let us all stand tall and say, "We will not tolerate this kind of behavior anymore!!"

It is time we bring morals back to the American, no, to the World population.


PLEASE


Send this email forward. Let everyone know, this type of behavior will no longer be tolerated!

With any luck, and with all the hope that I, and you can believe in, this email will get back to the original person who sent out this false alert so that the individual who started all this insanity will know how destructive there actions have become.

Just so that everyone knows, this is not a forward, ( granted I hope it will become one because of the severity of the issue ) but know this...... this is not a forward! These are my thoughts! These are my words laid out on the page and I believe in them.

Remember....

this is your DAUGHTER.......

this is your SISTER......

your MOTHER......

your FATHER.....

your BROTHER.....

your AUNT......

your UNCLE.....

your GRANDMA......

your GRANDPA.......

Any one of these people could be the missing person that YOU and your FAMILY are looking for.

So let us stand together and let these cyber pirates of the moral human spirit know that fake alerts about missing persons are not a practical joke!!!!

As I said earlier, PLEASE, send this forward. It is far past time we all began to stand tall and proud on a pinnacle of moral ground.

We have all, myself included, let it slide for far too long. And this is why I am drawing a line in the sand here and now.

Enough is enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No More!!!!!!!

3 comments:

Babe in the Woods said...

Hi Micheal
This is a really great post. We live our lives and don't think twice about what is happening out in the world anymore. The news media beats to death a story over and over again, but if a child is missing you might hear about it for a day or two. I hope many came to visit and read this carefully and thought about it. I try to validate any email I think is a hoax before sending it on. Maybe others will do the same because of this post.

kj said...

hey mike, if you check this before the 25th, merry christmas. and happy new year. i think of you and hope your job and family are all well. you were about the first blog i visited when i first entered the world of the blogs and i know you are a good guy.

best wishes,
kj

Cez said...

Happy new year Michael...nice to read you again!!
We'll stay in Vietnam for almost 2 years, after we'll see...perhaps go back to Canada or USA....
Read you soon, take care