Matters of Inversion

My grandmother sent me something very interesting today, asking me to "snope out the details." What I found was more disturbing that I bargained for.

"This should bother everyone. No matter the politics!! You will not see this heart-stopping photo on the front page of the NY Times or on the lead story of the major news networks. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High School in California .

"I predict this stunt will be the nail in the coffin of any guest-worker/amnesty plan on the table in Washington . The image of the American flag subsumed to another and turned upside down on American soil, is already spreading on Internet forums and via E-mail. ; Pass this along to every American citizen in your address books and to every representative in the state and federal government. If you choose to remain uninvolved, do not be amazed when you no longer have a nation to call your own nor anything you have worked for left since it will be 'redistributed' to the activists while you are so peacefully staying out of the 'fray'. Check history, it is full of nations/empires that disappeared when its citizens no longer held their core beliefs and values. One person CAN make a difference. One plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one......... The battle for our secure borders and immigration laws that actually mean something, however, hasn't even begun. PASS IT ON"

I looked into this and found out that this email is "true," but it "lies by omission." There are several facts that are not in included that should clarify what happened.

In March 2006, about 1,000 students from neighboring school districts El Rancho (Pico Rivera, CA) and Whittier Union (Whittier, CA) walked out and protested in front of Montebello High School in Montebello, CA, unfairly attaching the innocent high school's name to this incident. Montebello students were on lockdown during this time because it was quite a rowdy crowd. The Montebello High School website offers the explanation here, near the end of the page. This memo MUSD school employees received describes the incident in further detail.

Snopes offered this article and clarification here.

Unfortunately, I also found a website that incorrectly reports the details, saying that Montebello students marched out in protest. This is not true, and I was horrified that there are seemingly "dependable" news sources publishing this thing, where others can take and reproduce on web forums, further perpetuating the mess.

However, these pictures are 100% authentic, as are the students who so foolishly tied their mugs to this abomination. Apparently, one single student from the El Rancho district was punished, but there are no details as to who it was or what their punishment was.

I would feel comfortable sharing these pictures, but there needs to be a better explanation with it. It lacks details, such as saying "the protestors," who could be anyone, but unfairly ties Montebello students with this label. Montebello students were known to march out in protest of immigration legislature, but they were only a handful, and they did not cause a commotion or doing something illegal. Yet another reason why I worry about some of those in the generation behind me representing "civil discourse" in all the wrong ways - it brings to mind Andrew "Don't Tase me, Bro!" Meyers and the like.

Sweetness

Hershey's (the chocolate company) is moving some operations down south to Mexico. I was discussing it in an email with my grandmother, who asked me to confirm the story before she sent it out to her friends. As you all know, once I start writing, I can't stop, and these words came out:

"Well, I first checked out Snopes, and the email is only partially true. It is true that they are opening a plant in Mexico, laying off about 3,000 Hershey's workers, and closing the plant in Canada, but they're not shutting down the U.S. operations *completely.* They'll still be working here. It's just that they're doing what everyone else is doing by outsourcing some of their labor to cheaper labor sites (Mexico and South Korea) to cut down operations costs, and likely phase out the powerful U.S. labor unions, although they'd never say that out loud! If you'd want to spread the whole truth, I would pass this article around instead. Click here for the story.

More from the horse's mouth, here is a press release about Hershey Mexico acquiring one of Mexico's top confectionaries back in 2004. In truth, Hershey Mexico began operations way back in 1969. We've probably been eating chocolate made in Mexico at one point or another for nearly 40 years. So I am really not surprised that after acquiring confectionaries in Mexico and South Korea that they decided to move some operations down south. Click here for the story.

Ironically, the plant that is suffering Hershey's cuts by the end of the year is located in Oakdale, Calif. Sounds like some of the immigrants here may want to think about returning home if they want to keep their manufacturing job :-( that article can be found by clicking here.

Even more ironic is that the world's melting pot is now handing out jobs overseas and enticing workers with good jobs at a fraction of the cost that an American would require. Considering the power of the American dollar is sinking fast, we are going to be seeing a lot of this happen more often, especially with companies that most people think are truly "all-American." You have to wonder what the powerful U.S. corporations are thinking about this immigration hullabaloo... it's as if they're saying 'Don't come to us - we'll come to you.'"

So if you want to boycott Hershey, buy Dove. I don't know where their chocolate comes from, though.

If you feel guilty about eating chocolate at all, this will make you feel a little better about it.

Snopes.com and Andy Rooney

Ahh. Finally found something to share with whoever is checking this out.

I have been receiving email about Andy Rooney's political views and supposed '60 Minutes' commentary for years now, and I'd like to set the record straight. This is driving me nuts. First, here is the reference to what I'm about to summarize: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=andy+rooney&getit=Go&sp-a=00062d45-sp0000000
0&sp-advanced=1&sp-p=all&sp-w-control=1&sp-w=alike&sp-date-range=-1&sp-x=any&sp-c=
100&sp-m=1&sp-s=0

Please do not forward any more junk about Andy's 'views'. There is only a couple that are actually true:

-TRUE: Andy Rooney and the French (it's about the French not having the right to protest what the U.S. is doing in Iraq)
-TRUE: Andy Rooney re: Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson.

Otherwise, some idiot appended Rooney's name to the following views and now are needlessly clogging inboxes everywhere:

-FALSE: Andy Rooney explains his political views (re: guns, racism, tattoos and piercings, etc.)
-FALSE: Andy Rooney suggests ways to cut down on junk mail and telemarketing phone calls.
-FALSE: Andy Rooney on any of the following: Monica (as in Lewinsky), vegetarians, prisoners, fabric softeners, phone-in polls, cripes, Grandma, answering machines, award shows, pregnancy, ads in bills, life cycle, etc., etc., etc. Several of these are actually from comedian Sean Morey.
-FALSE: Andy Rooney 'in praise of older women.'

Every time I receive anything forwarded to me, I cross reference on snopes.com. It is the best reference for checking the validity of almost anything that lands in my inbox. 90% of the time, these emails are false and they go straight into the trash. Once I even sent a politely composed email to a friend who had a habit of forwarding junk email to me and told her that she'd been busy forwarding stuff like this for nothing. She was stunned. I don't know why. There are liars everywhere and I'm not surprised they've learned to use the Internet.

I even get doctored photos or mislabeled photos. I have an email that is stuffed full of photos that claim to show pictures of Hurricane Katrina.
*First of all, these pictures are taken in the middle of corn fields. I didn't know New Orleans was big on farming these days.
*Second, the storm cells only covered a few miles. Hurricanes cover much more ground and you normally can't see the sky during one.
*Third, one picture is clearly showing a tornado. All the photos show supercells in some form of development or some tornadic activity.

Don't even get me started on the photo of the snake that swallowed a human. It ain't true, folks.