I don't care. I'd rather examine all possibilities and I am not a person who automatically believes everything I read.
So far in my travels, I have read the comments posted online and asked a few people for their opinions on the the story out of Ontario about the mother that allegedly received a hate letter about her autistic child, and I've yet to find a person who did not automatically believe these people were victims and that the writer of the letter should be tarred and feathered immediately.
Let's really look at this, because it's clear that an injustice has been committed.
Here is the story:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/19/ontario-family-shocked-when-they-receive-letter-telling-them-to-euthanize-autistic-child/
Or:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/karla-begley-autistic-letter-teen_n_3780378.html
Or:
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/500069/20130820/shocking-hate-letter-autistic-teen-canadian-euthanasia.htm#.UhOb4tJOO6M
Pick you favorite source.
Now, personally, something is not seeming right about this to me (apart from the obvious), but that's not really what this is about. I will not disagree AT ALL that the writer of this letter is a monster.
But who wrote it and why? There are really only two possibilities: this is real or this is fake. But everyone has immediately assumed that this happened the way it was reported.
Is no one considering the second possibility?
To be very clear, I am not saying this is a hoax, or that I believe this is a hoax. But I'm also not saying it isn't.
What I am simply saying is that I don't have enough information to make a judgement. I only know what was told to me by the news and the interwebz, and I don't know that it's correct.
I have a problem with the fact that this letter was photographed and then posted to Twitter by a family friend for the world to see.
Why was this not taken immediately to police? Possibly to the head of a neighborhood association, if applicable. It sounds rather dangerous and threatening, doesn't it? Should it not have been brought to the attention of some higher authority right away?
If someone could be hateful and monstrous enough to send a letter like that, if someone could be THAT demented, is it not possible that someone could also be monstrous enough create it for some sort of personal attention or gain?
Let's not be sheep and let's not believe it just because the interwebz or the big glowing thing in our living room told it to us.
Before I even finished reading the letter, I searched Snopes and I then I checked to make sure this didn't come from The Onion, because it's so crazy and unbelievable.
Remember the girl who doused herself with acid and claimed she was attacked? "What kind of monster would do that to another person!?" we all cried. Hmm. Yes, what kind of person does that.
http://mynorthwest.com/926/2231749/Acid-hoax-perpetrator-seeing-self-clearly-for-first-time
The Manti Te'o hoax story?
People DO these things. Snopes was founded on the basis of people making shit up for no good reason.
Email scams, phone scams, door-to-door scams, the list goes on and on.
How many times have you heard or read about the countless scums who get online and create alternate lives with elaborate stories (the most common seem to be that that they have cancer, or some other serious or terminal illness) for attention, for money, or for whatever other twisted reasons they may have.
What about all of the celebrity death hoaxes recently. It seems as if just about once a week, someone (or several someones) with WAY too much free time decides to spread a rumor that some celebrity or another has grown wings, thus making things hell for several days for that person, their agents or PR teams, and of course their families. I personally know a family that this happened to recently. It's not funny, and it's very sick and twisted. It proves that just because you read it does not mean that it's true or that you are getting the full story.
I have also personally known multiple, yes, multiple, people in my life who have done such things. Maybe not as bad as this (that I know of, at least), but people who have certainly told sick, crazy lies for attention, sympathy and personal gain, and fabricated things about their lives and about themselves. And I don't mean your normal, "I'm 28 years old" type of white lie when they are actually 33.
I honestly hope this turns out to be a real letter sent by a real person.
That's a really weird thing to say, right? I know.
But I've already accepted the fact that there are sick, horrible people who do terrible things like this to other people, and that we're surrounded by people who are hateful, racist, sexist, ageist, selfish, you name it. It's terrible, but our past, present and future are full of that.
I have a much bigger problem with the kind of people that create lies for attention, personal gain, simply to hurt people, to receive sympathy (attention), to cover up other terrible things they have done or are doing, or whatever sick, disgusting reason they have.
To me, both possibilities here are very real and should be considered. I read that police are investigating and I hope they get to the bottom of this. If this was truly sent by someone in the neighborhood, or by someone who has some type of grudge with the boy's mother or someone in his family, then surely this person needs to be found out and punished for their action.
The hoax scenario is a an all-too-real possibility too, though.
To be continued if or when more details emerge.
I have a problem with the fact that this letter was photographed and then posted to Twitter by a family friend for the world to see.
Why was this not taken immediately to police? Possibly to the head of a neighborhood association, if applicable. It sounds rather dangerous and threatening, doesn't it? Should it not have been brought to the attention of some higher authority right away?
If someone could be hateful and monstrous enough to send a letter like that, if someone could be THAT demented, is it not possible that someone could also be monstrous enough create it for some sort of personal attention or gain?
Let's not be sheep and let's not believe it just because the interwebz or the big glowing thing in our living room told it to us.
Before I even finished reading the letter, I searched Snopes and I then I checked to make sure this didn't come from The Onion, because it's so crazy and unbelievable.
Remember the girl who doused herself with acid and claimed she was attacked? "What kind of monster would do that to another person!?" we all cried. Hmm. Yes, what kind of person does that.
http://mynorthwest.com/926/2231749/Acid-hoax-perpetrator-seeing-self-clearly-for-first-time
The Manti Te'o hoax story?
People DO these things. Snopes was founded on the basis of people making shit up for no good reason.
Email scams, phone scams, door-to-door scams, the list goes on and on.
How many times have you heard or read about the countless scums who get online and create alternate lives with elaborate stories (the most common seem to be that that they have cancer, or some other serious or terminal illness) for attention, for money, or for whatever other twisted reasons they may have.
What about all of the celebrity death hoaxes recently. It seems as if just about once a week, someone (or several someones) with WAY too much free time decides to spread a rumor that some celebrity or another has grown wings, thus making things hell for several days for that person, their agents or PR teams, and of course their families. I personally know a family that this happened to recently. It's not funny, and it's very sick and twisted. It proves that just because you read it does not mean that it's true or that you are getting the full story.
I have also personally known multiple, yes, multiple, people in my life who have done such things. Maybe not as bad as this (that I know of, at least), but people who have certainly told sick, crazy lies for attention, sympathy and personal gain, and fabricated things about their lives and about themselves. And I don't mean your normal, "I'm 28 years old" type of white lie when they are actually 33.
I honestly hope this turns out to be a real letter sent by a real person.
That's a really weird thing to say, right? I know.
But I've already accepted the fact that there are sick, horrible people who do terrible things like this to other people, and that we're surrounded by people who are hateful, racist, sexist, ageist, selfish, you name it. It's terrible, but our past, present and future are full of that.
I have a much bigger problem with the kind of people that create lies for attention, personal gain, simply to hurt people, to receive sympathy (attention), to cover up other terrible things they have done or are doing, or whatever sick, disgusting reason they have.
To me, both possibilities here are very real and should be considered. I read that police are investigating and I hope they get to the bottom of this. If this was truly sent by someone in the neighborhood, or by someone who has some type of grudge with the boy's mother or someone in his family, then surely this person needs to be found out and punished for their action.
The hoax scenario is a an all-too-real possibility too, though.
To be continued if or when more details emerge.
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