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THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2016
Editorial
Views
The challenge
of finding
credible info
The 2016 presidential campaign
offered a plethora of outlandish, exag
gerated, out-of-context, discredited and
false statements to confuse and mis
lead voters, but the growing reliance
on Internet — and particularly social
media — sources for news and infor
mation is the proverbial double-edged
sword for a public that wants to be
informed. Virtually everything that hap
pens in the public eye, and a lot that is
not-so-public, is made available to the
person willing to look for it.
A typical Google search turns up at
least hundreds of thousands of results
— often millions — on any given topic.
But Google does not filter for credibility,
which means that task is left to users.
The strength of the Internet is that it
provides equal access to information.
The weakness is that valid, accurate
information and data, and long-dis
credited conspiracy theories, Elvis
sightings and outright misinformation
are given equal weight, leaving the user
to sort out the accurate from the twist
ed from the outright fabricated.
Thus, as easily as one can find the
scores of Saturday’s football games,
one can also find posts about sharia
courts in Texas or that Dearborn, Mich
igan has implemented sharia law or
countless similar “reports” designed
to convince Americans that their coun
try is at risk of being “taken over” by
Muslims. Some such posts come from
prestigious-sounding “organizations”
that are little more than web pages
and they’re widely circulated among
like-minded individuals, some as proof
that their worst fears are coming true
and others to promulgate that fear.
Other less political topics are treat
ed similarly. Worried about an “Inde
pendence Day”-style alien invasion?
Goggle produces 556,000 responses to
“alien sightings in Texas.”
Particularly in the areas of public
policy, public safety and politics, the
Internet is rife with reports that, if true,
would rile any American. And some
of those reports are true, indeed. But
many are false, often deliberately so,
designed to influence what readers or
viewers think about their communities
or their neighbors, to sway public opin
ion on any number of subjects. There
are also sources such as snopes.com
and factcheck.org (a Google search
for fact check websites turns up 9
million responses) that reportedly dig
into everything from the facts the politi
cians cite to the latest rumors sweeping
across social media.
Responsibility rests with the con
sumer to filter the useful and accurate
from the unhealthy and misleading.
The Internet has an unlimited capac
ity for information, but not all of the
information is honest or accurate.
It remains up to users to find credit
able, tested sources whose content is
consistently reliable. That’s the way
pmdent citizens have always judged
their news sources, whether in print
(including this newspaper) or by
broadcast. Internet sources deserve
the same scrutiny.
Unless otherwise noted, all editorials
are written by Mark Beardsley. He can
be reached at mark@mainstreetnews.
com.
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Support for 'none of the above'
A hellacious presidential race ends in just
a week, and aside from cartoonists and the
writers for Saturday Night Live, I know of no
one sad to see it come to an end, regardless
of who wins.
Never before have so many people
expressed the opinion that their choice for
president boiled down to selecting the lesser
of two evils, and a considerable number of
people have indicated plans to vote for a
third-party candidate as a protest against the
offerings of the Democrats and Republicans.
Personally, I took the lesser of the two evils
approach, but before the circus returns to
town in about three more years, I’d like to see
another option offered to voters, not just at
the national level, but on state matters as well.
It’s the none-of-the-above ticket.
Instead of having to vote for one of two
(or more) unacceptable candidates, voters
should have the option of rejecting all of the
candidates in any race. It might be instmctive
to see results that indicated only the voters
who liked one of the candidates.
If that option were available for the Nov. 8
election, we’d be able to compare the win
ner’s vote total against the total of all voters
who did not like the winner. Assuming that
the polls are right and Hillary Clinton wins,
that might offer the following result or some
thing similar: Clinton, 5 million; Trump, 4 mil
lion; none of the above, 100 million.
Again, assuming that Clinton wins, she will
accept the presidency claiming a mandate for
her policies, in spite of the fact that many —
maybe most — of the votes she received rep-
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
By Mark Beardsley
resented fear and loathing of Tmmp, rather
than appreciation for Clinton.
If nothing else, a none-of-the-above option
would engender some humility. Okay, should
engender some humility. I’d personally be
satisfied if voters were allowed to cast their
ballots just like they will Nov. 8 but also have
the opportunity to register their disdain for
both candidates by also checking a box indi
cating their dissatisfaction with the choices.
That would allow voters to essentially vote
against Clinton or against Tmmp while mak
ing known that they neither tmst nor respect
nor agree politically with either candidate.
In this election in particular, whoever wins
should not be allowed to maintain the illusion
that her (or his) victory is the result of an
admiring public.
We’ve all experienced the feeling in the vot
ing booth that we were choosing the lesser of
the evils, whether for president of the United
States or for city council, only to see the least
of the two evils boasting of the electoral man
date received when the ballots are counted. I
say, let’s take that opportunity away.
One would hope that both political parties
starting on Nov. 9 would review the 2016
cycle, see the massive discontent with their
nominees, figure out how to address that dis
content, and in the 2020 elections field some
candidates more responsive to the real needs
of American voters. A good start would be
to replace every incumbent member of Con
gress in the 2014 mid-terms, recognizing that
Congress passes the laws and budgets and
meddles in our lives far more than a presi
dent.
I’m not holding my breath. The probability
is that we’ll go through the same thing again
in four years.
What was that definition of insanity? Doing
the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results?
All I really want is for the political parties
put forth candidates we can vote for, men
and women of good character, experience
and possessing a modicum of manners and
humility, candidates capable of taking the
high road and presenting credible options
for resolving challenges that will be unmet
without change.
Lacking that, at least give us the opportuni
ty to register our growing discontent with the
“leadership” offered by both parties.
I’d allow a “None-of-the-above” sign in my
yard, wouldn’t you?
Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Com
merce News. He lives in Commerce.
When a job is well done
A few weeks ago, when the late September
and early-to-mid-October heat was breaking
records here, I had what you might call a
front-row seat — well, a front-yard seat, any
way — from which to watch the creation of a
sidewalk where there had not been one.
It was part of a long-mnning City of Com
merce project, with the goal of making it pos
sible for Commerce kids to walk to school.
But this project had been in the works for so
long, and had been interrupted so often, that
I figured it might never make it to the Jeffer
son Road.
But then I began noticing the preparation
work - removal of trees and shmbs, etc. -
and lo and behold, one morning I heard the
unaccustomed mmble of heavy machinery.
And when I got to the top of my driveway, I
found drivers in machines of all sizes, sup
ported by “ground troops,” with flag-men
at each end of the work area temporarily
turning a segment of our two-way street into a
one-way street.
Perhaps this had been planned as a fall
project, in the hope that the August heat
would have abated, and our usual lovely
autumn weather — warm sun, cool air, clear
skies—would make the work less arduous.
No such luck. I tried to keep my comings and
goings to a minimum by doing all my errands
and appointments in a single trip, but still I
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had plenty of opportunities to see those work
ers patiently applying their skills and elbow
grease, day after day, in the unrelenting heat,
and the flagmen standing in the dusty road
like Buckingham Palace guards, holding us
up or waving us through, but always with a
smile or a wave.
And now, thanks to them, we have a beau
tiful long stretch of curb and sidewalk, from
Lakeview Drive to the Commerce Middle
School. In places there’s a grassy median
between the road and the sidewalk, and a
few days ago I saw a watering truck drive by
to keep that grass alive, I guess, until the fall
rains finally come.
Meanwhile, and from now on, I can at last
safely walk to town from my house, or in the
other direction, down to the Middle School
track where I sometimes like to walk in the
fall and winter. Always before, it was a risky
business: I had to wait until no cars were
coming, and then scurry along the side of
the road or on the edges of people’s yards.
But the new sidewalk doesn’t just offer safety.
It’s inviting. And I’ve seen walkers enjoying it
every day since it was completed.
Perhaps it sounds odd to be inspired by a
sidewalk, but my front-yard seat gave me a
chance to see the effort involved in its cre
ation, and the professional dedication with
which the work was done. And really, that’s
what was inspiring.
I’ve actually seen a good bit of that in Com
merce, over the years. Perhaps it’s the civic
version of “team spirit,” fleshed-out by each
individual’s pride in his or her work. You can
see it in action at City Hall, at our schools,
and in our library. It’s visible in the care with
which our Grey Hill Cemetery is kept. But to
see it in action day after day under the very
hot sun — grueling work in grinding heat,
with a side-order of road-dust - was a special
reminder, for me, of what it can mean to do a
job well, and with pride in the work. It’s a gift
you give to the world.
Susan Harpe■ is a retired editor, lecturer, and
local library director who currently serves on
the Jackson County and Piedmont Regional
library boards.
Bagels, grits & food memories
Until a couple of weeks ago I had never
tasted a bagel. It’s not that I am a gastronomic
reactionary, exactly, but a man is culinarily
constrained by his wife. If she doesn’t buy
a thing, he doesn’t eat it. There are lots of
things my wife never buys: we never have veal
or lamb; never have steak-and-kidney pie, and
tripe is out of the question.
I traveled when I worked and I could have
gotten a bagel at the hotel breakfast bar, but
there were always other things that I knew
and liked, so bagels remained an unknown.
As a matter of fact, when I did finally taste
one, it was about what I expected: rather
tasteless and heavy, like a three-day-old din
ner roll.
I wasn’t surprised, as I enjoy grits, also not
known for their pungent flavor. Whenever
Yankees come South for the first time they
always order grits, because they have heard
about them. And their reaction is invariably,
“This stuff has no taste at all!” If you were
polite you could say that grits have a very
subtle taste, but if you are honest, you will say
they are tasteless. In fact, it takes a generous,
blood-pressure-elevating amount of salt to
make grits palatable.
So, why are grits (and bagels) so popular?
I believe it’s because they are important links
to our childhood. I grew up with grits for
breakfast and I suppose that thousands of
New York Jewish kids grew up with bagels.
It’s not the taste, it’s the memories. No, it’s
not even the memories, but the subconscious
attraction of childhood, something like Jung’s
“collective unconscious.” Anthropologists
say almost all humans find grassy savannahs
attractive, and they say it’s because early man
evolved in such areas. We retain a longing for
our ancestral home. And we retain a love of
our childhood food.
I also suspect that a taste for grits may be
indicative of one’s political leaning. After all,
there are two kinds of people in the world:
those who think the future will be better than
the past (whom we call progressives, or liber
als), and those who think the past was better
than the future will be (the reactionaries or
conservatives). If your childhood and its
milieu are attractive to you (and you grew up
in the South), you probably like grits. If your
childhood was unhappy, you probably like
yogurt.
It’s hard to believe my career was as an
engineer, isn’t it? With this kind of humanistic
insight I should have been a psychologist or a
psychiatrist. Well, engineers are detail-oriented.
They say that the devil is in the details. What
that means is that that’s where all the failures
originate. A bridge doesn’t collapse because a
100-ton girder snaps. It fails because a one-inch
bolt fractures. A one-inch bolt is to a bridge as
grits or bagels are to the human psyche. Take
away a man’s grits and you never know what
might happen. He might snap too. I think I’m
on pretty safe ground here in speculating that
neither Adolf Hitler nor Joseph Stalin had their
morning grits as adults, and you see how they
turned out.
Kim Jong-un never eats grits. (Do you think
his name is a joke by the way: “Kim young
‘un” as in Kim, junior? And don’t they have
barbers in North Korea?) I’ve always thought
we should drop an H-bomb on Pyongyang,
but maybe we should drop a grits-bomb
instead.
Willis Cook is a retired electr ical engineer
who was born in New Orleans and grew up
in the Mississippi Delta. He lives in Franklin
Count)/.
