From time to time an email pops into my inbox which motivates me to send a response and now I will post these emails to this blog along with my reply. First, you can read my reply, then, you can find the original email quoted below the fold. Typically the reply is short and designed, less to provide answers, and more to develop questions for your further inquiry. This is an exercise in pointing out misinformation and inflammatory spam which is used to create zealots for some cause out of an under educated public. My belief is that more education is needed for all involved with this and every other email I post here. Education for the people who are spoken of in the email, those who write the email, those who read the email, and those who forward the email. This education could be formal, paid university, education or informal, self-motivated, free research and internet based education. This is sure to be the first of many posts of this nature. As always, let me know what you think.
My reply to those who had the “guts” to forward this email:
Sorry, but this, the heinous murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian, did get covered in the news. Perhaps the reason it did not get as much coverage as you may like is that you were not paying attention when the headline hit and didn’t make as much fuss about it. Here are a few news and internet sources which did cover this story:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/may/27/slaying-victims-lost-in-the-furor/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18745632/
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/16/jury-seeks-clarity-how-involved-boyd-had-be/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=42504
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=45318
http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/051707/D8P6ED601.shtml
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/christopher-channon.htm
http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp
http://news.google.com/news/search?um=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=Christopher+Newsom+Channon+Christian
If that’s not enough coverage for you then you could do some more digging and find many more stories by many other news outlets, or you could just acknowledge that this is a tragic event which happens far too often in our country and not every crime can become a mini-series news event. This quote from the father of one of the victims sums up this email quite well, “There are people out there that just want to make something even worse than what it already is.” (http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/may/27/slaying-victims-lost-in-the-furor/) If you only read one of these stories this one I quoted is probably the better choice and I would venture a guess that you will not read all of these, let alone search for more, because the fact of the matter is that this is a regularly occurring crime and the only reason that you’re bringing it up is because you think that it will somehow fuel division between white and black people, not because it didn’t get the coverage it deserves. Here’s a quick search with over 60 articles, just in case you want more coverage of this tragedy, (http://news.google.com/news/search?um=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=Christopher+Newsom+Channon+Christian).
Frank
P.S.
I’ve often wondered how many people get their news from forwarded, chain letter, emails. If you believed this story without further investigation then you’re one of these people. Please reply back to this email and let me know that chain letters are your preferred, reliable, source for news and information.
