# How I became a casualty in the fight against ignorance. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 16, 2000, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824 "2000-12-16T00:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/1 "2000-12-16T00:03:55Z")
Earlier today I recieved an email from my father. Nothing strange since he emails me with all sorts of jokes and other assorted things. Today was a little different since it was the anti-drunk driving poem/petition, I’m sure that many of you have seen it. > [@](#): > > Mom > I went to a party, > and remembered what you said. > You told me not to drink, Mom > so I had a Sprite instead. > > \>snip > > I wish that you could hold me Mom, > as I lie here and die. > I wish that I could say I love you, Mom > So I love you and good-bye. > > WE ARE HOPING TO GET 5,000 SIGNATURES ON THIS THEN PASS IT TO THE > PRESIDENT. PLEASE SIGN. IF YOU GET THIS PLEDGE AND DELETE IT, > YOU’RE SELFISHNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS… Well, I went to [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) and found this very petition [here](http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/petition/drunk.htm). So, like a good little Doper I figured that I could fight me some ignorance. Instead of hitting reply, I hit reply all and sent snopes link to my father and everbody that he had sent it to. For some reason dad had sent the petition to the very person (I’ll call her Jane) who had sent it to him. Well, Jane was none too pleased with me (I should point out that I know Jane quite well). Jane emailed me and my father, and here is what she said, > [@](#): > > Well, I guess it’s the thought that counts…but no offense, by emailing all of my friends that I took the time to forward that to probably wasn’t the nicest way to go about it…You probably should have simply forwarded that > link to me, since I was the one who emailed that petition out in the first place. I respect your thoughts and feelings regarding this, but sending out a mass email to a bunch of people that you don’t know at all probably wasn’t > the best route. > > If you disagree with an email, which by the way I didn’t even send to you, feel free to SOLELY email the person who was responsible for sending out the email, NOT EVERYONE ELSE WHO WAS COPIED ON IT…I WAS TRYING TO DO SOMETHING > TO HELP A FRIEND WHO WAS HIT BY A DRUNK DRIVER. > > I appreciate your thoughts, but it wasn’t your right or duty to blatantly throw the email back in my face, much less all of my friends. Sigh, being a solider in the fight against ignorance is harder than I thought. Granted, I made a mistake in hitting reply all, but isn’t Jane’s reaction a little overboard? The most disappointing thing is that in the end, Jane still didn’t realize that the petition wasn’t doing anything except giving her the warm, fuzzys. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/2 "2000-12-16T00:13:22Z")
I dunno. As long as it had a moderate level of diplomacy embodied in it, I don’t see a problem. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/3 "2000-12-16T00:27:07Z")
Heh. At least you didn’t send her [Kimstu’s proposed addition](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50584). (It’s near the bottom of the thread, and it is a work of art.) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/4 "2000-12-16T00:30:20Z")
People get sort of pissed when their illusions are crushed. Instead of being appreciative that they were enlightened, they tend to be resentful of the person who told them the truth. Sort of the old “kill the messanger” philosophy. I wouldn’t let it bother you. Jane is the problem, not you. I’d just tell her that the e-mail was sent by mistake, and leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![lesa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/34f0e0/32.png) [@lesa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lesa)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/5 "2000-12-16T02:01:50Z")
Tell Jane if she wants to make a real difference, she should get people to write real letters or sign real petitions. If this is something she cares about, she should do something about it. Even if it’s a painful lesson, people need to learn that forwarding email doesn’t accomplish anything. Also, from the snippets you included of the email, what did she think this “petition” would accomplish? Did it request anything? Just sending an email to the president saying “drunk driving is bad” is pretty vague. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/6 "2000-12-16T02:08:43Z")
same thing happened to me - my sister in law e-mailed me the Afghan women thing last year, I sent back a carefully worded ‘gosh darn Diane, but…’ thing back, she got all huffy about it ‘if it raises people’s consciousness’ blah blah blah. you tried. Best of all worlds, she won’t send you nuthin’ like it in the future, and perhaps you stopped all the folks that were cc’d from sending it on, too… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/7 "2000-12-16T02:14:24Z")
Thank you for offending this women. Although it has caused you some pain and embarassment to do so, your actions will probably prevent her from being quite so willing to litter cysberspace with junk mail. ---
**Author:** ![Revedge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@Revedge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revedge)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/8 "2000-12-16T07:18:21Z")
Well said Squink! Adam, she was insufferably rude. If she truly wrote it, then the last sentence “…if you get this pledge and delete it, your selfisness knows no bounds.” was incredibly boorish. This is emotional blackmail of the highest order. Cutting off her fingers so she can’t type is an appropriate punishment. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/9 "2000-12-16T07:38:40Z")
If she didn’t want you replying to all her friends, maybe she could have taken a moment to learn about and use the BCC feature? I think this may be what pisses me off most about these glurgefests - that I’ve been added to so many strangers’ mailing lists because people I know have passed my address along. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/10 "2000-12-16T15:46:33Z")
"Dear Jane, I’m sorry you were offended that I sent the e-mail to everyone on the list. It has been my experience that people don’t like to admit when they were wrong, or when they have been duped. I know you probably would have sent the link to everyone you had originally sent the hoax to, but I didn’t want to put you in the position where you would have to personally make a retraction. The people who write these things play off of the good intentions of people like yourself. Although you see yourself as doing a good thing, the original authors are sitting back laughing at you. That is why these e-mail chains must be broken. I hope you enjoy the [link](http://www.snopes.com) and visit it often. With the information there you can join in the fight against ignorance and help defeat the plans of the people who ejoy playing with other people’s emotions. Yours in truth, adam yax" Okay, I don’t know if the link vB will work in e-mail. But you get the idea. I make it a point to reply to everyone on the list when I get one of these. I also go through the entire e-thread and get all of the recipients I can who previously received the message. I change the title to “THIS IS A HOAX” and put in an explanation. Ususally the explanation is something like this: "The e-mail you received is a hoax. It never happened [or if it did, I point out that the crisis is over. – JL.A.]. Here is a link where you can check it out for yourself: [http://www.snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com) It says: “[text from snopes]” If you get any more of these e-mail hoaxes, please reply to everyone who had previously received it." ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/11 "2000-12-16T19:39:08Z")
Thanks for the replies. I am about to author an apology email, however, due to “politcal” concerns I can’t be a forthcoming as I would like. Once I decide on what to say, I’ll post it here. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-became-a-casualty-in-the-fight-against-ignorance/45824/12 "2000-12-16T20:07:27Z")
Here is the email that I ended up sending: > [@](#): > > Jane, > > I want to apologize for my email yesterday. It was my intention to ONLY send the message to my father. It was only after it was sent that I realized that I had hit the REPLY ALL button and not just the REPLY button. > > It was not my intention to throw the email back in your face or anyone else’s. Like you, I have friends who have been victimized by drunken drivers. I fully believe that all that can be done to stop drunk driving, should be done. The email that I sent was in no way meant to belittle you or anybody who believes that more needs to be done to stop drunk driving. > > My issue with the email that you sent (that I thought came from my father) is actually due to the very last paragraph. I feel that it is a cheap ploy to prey on the emotions of people, and serves an end that is at best, vague. > > I think that more can be done to fight drunk driving through MADD [http://www.madd.org/donations/sponsors.shtml](http://www.madd.org/donations/sponsors.shtml) than any email petition. > > Once again, I am sorry. > > Adam