“Says Who?”
I am saying the above so often these days, I wear my voice hoarse.
Last week, during President Biden’s “State Of The Union” address, as happens often to our commanders-in-chief when making these kinds of speeches, Mr. Biden was applauded, booed, and suffered some comments from the audience. One comment came from NYC morning DJ, 77WABC’s Sid Rosenberg. Yelling “Says Who” at Biden as the pres. quoted death toll numbers from the Hamas-Israel war, Rosenberg surely questioned, the DJ was then escorted out of the chambers.
A lawsuit might be pending over this outing. More on this later.
This week investigators have been led to the conclusion that a now-former forensic scientist with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Yvonne “Missy” Woods manipulated or omitted DNA test results in hundreds of cases, during her nearly 30-year career. Surely beyond the unavoidable human error always possible in any endeavor a human is involved in Woods’ case the 29-year veteran of the agency’s crime lab is alleged to “…may have deviated from standard operating procedures,” the agency said.
The point I am trying to make: Question it all, be it some facts a sitting president is spewing or what our supposed scientific agencies are claiming.
The problem though, as we all too well know, is that dare you to ask a question these days, you are instantly cordoned off as an opponent of the thing you are asking about. I have said repeatedly that each case of women claiming sexual harassment needs to be investigated before one can say conclusively that the woman was indeed accosted. But then I get castigated, and all too quickly labeled as being a toxic white older hetero male (the vilest form of our species presently) for being against the entire #MeToo thing.
Which I ain’t.
When the plastic bag ban was enacted in NJ, I not only asked why, but where was the evidence that this ban might do some good? Just because some environmental group makes a claim doesn’t mean it is true. And just this past month a report came out (and surely a report we need to question, I’ll grant you) that brings into stark relief how the ban might indeed not be effective at all, and maybe even have to be banned.
By now, we have surely seen evidence contradicting the benefits of recycling.
Same with statistics bearing some sort of real truth. I had a wonderful teacher in college who used to say, “Once they start counting, you should start questioning.”
Question President Trump’s statements or conversely President Biden’s and you are instantly labeled as being against these men. Conversely, agreeing to something either man says or does you are instantly labeled to be playing for their team/tribe.
I’m not for either. As my niece used to call me when I acted wacky around her, trying my best just to make her laugh, I think both U.S. political parties, and the people who populate them, are pretty damn “silly.”
The biggest pushback I got from my question-everything stance was over the COVID vax. As it rolled out from a few pharmaceutical companies (one that was on the verge of bankruptcy) and the government seemed to engage in a quest to get everybody to take the jab, I wondered (though, God forbid not out loud) the safety of a vax that was thrust upon us all with a religious-like fervor that seemed to split along political lines. I read as much pro and con, and all from sources I seriously could not trust. In the case of the VID jab my girl and I went with our gut, while at the same time never mocking anyone who got the jab or telling anyone not to get it. But man were we surely castigated and even shunned by some friends and family, labeled this or that, treated like Typhoid Mary’s.
And when evidence surfaces now about how so many people are experiencing terrible side effects (as much from the jab as businesses and the culture breaking down) and there is more proof everyday how much Dr. F. may have gotten wrong, or how much he much he may have made from pandemic (again stuff we all have to question), doesn’t it seem reasonable that I had some doubt? That I questioned?
Questioning. Reasoning. Pushing back against a majority opinion or a popular one. This is what we need to keep doing all the time, kiddies. Question it all. In the click-bait, twatted news cycle we live in, believe me, all you have left is your good common sense.
Don’t trust a blessed soul.
The minute you stop questioning and simply go with the flow, we are all doomed…oh wait, aren’t we there now?
Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that, huh?
