FACTS AND DATA DO MATTER

Rochester, N.Y.-- Thanks for all the emails and comments about our special commentary posted by Ove Overmyer last Friday, February 25. It appears he struck a nerve with the conservative republican contingent of our local labor movement. We believe his major point was that facts and data do matter, and should not be ignored. His posts always include plenty of citations and hyperlinks to provide substance to any conversation.  By interpreting these facts based on data, we hope we can come to logical conclusions and a promote a compelling argument for discussion. It should also be stated that disinformation is not unique to the right, of course.

The fact is that it's very hard for people to accept change or challenge their own identity, and we get that. Bill Moyers recently wrote, "While most of us like to believe that our opinions have been formed over time by careful, rational consideration of facts and ideas and that the decisions based on those opinions, therefore, have the ring of soundness and intelligence, the research found that actually we often base our opinions on our beliefs ... and rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept."

Your present belief system can cause us to twist real facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. These studies that Moyers talks about help us to explain why America seems more and more unable to deal with reality. So many people inhabit a closed belief system on whose door they have hung the "Do Not Disturb" sign, that they pick and choose only those facts that will serve as building blocks for walling them off from uncomfortable truths-- like, for example, we have a black President of the United States.

No wonder so many people still believe Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, as his birth certificate shows; or that he is a Muslim, when in fact he is a Christian; or that he is a socialist when day by day he shows an eager solicitude for corporate capitalism.  It also helps explain why people do not believe in the American Labor Movement.  We are sure, once given correct and factual information on why we exist and who we are, that more reasonable people will finally understand our relevance.  Partisans in particular-- and the audiences for Murdoch's Fox News and talk radio-- are particularly susceptible to such scurrilous disinformation.

In a Harris survey last spring, 67 percent of Republicans said Obama is a socialist; 57 percent believed him to be a Muslim; 45 percent refused to believe he was born in America; and 24 percent said he "may be the antichrist."  This is almost laugh-out-loud funny if it wasn't so depressing.

Simply stated, if we can come to a higher order of understanding through the factual exchange of information and be open to learning from one another, we believe that our "voice" will have a rightful place in the democratization of our community. We thank you for your readership, even when you may disagree with our point of view from time to time.