This Girl Has OPINIONS

There’s always something to talk about at our house. Mom and John are always listening to the news and being who we are, we always have opinions about whatever. Erik sometimes gets on his soap box and tells us we shouldn’t be making opinions when we don’t have “first hand knowledge”. Like are we ever going to have first hand knowledge about OJ? Wasn’t it obvious the very first afternoon when we saw him being chased down the LA highway by police helicopters that he was guilty as all get out? Please, I didn’t need to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was never going to be his jury nor was anyone outside our circle going to know what I was thinking.

Anyway, Erik and his soap box. When are we okay to have an opinion about a media topic and when should we stay quiet? That is the question for today.

My feeling is that if you aren’t going to affect the outcome (like the OJ case) there isn’t any reason why you can’t voice your opinion to your family and friends. However, before a person makes a judgment call, one should remember that the media hardly ever provides us with the full story and that should weigh as part of a person’s opinion. In other words, one should say something like “with the information given, it does seem thus and so . . .” For instance, when that bus driver smashed into the truck some years ago and a child was killed and others injured, the rumour was that she was on her cell phone. If that information was correct, naturally a person could give an opinion. In this case, no surprise to anyone who knows me, I wondered yet again why there was no law banning cell phones while driving?

My own family has been the subject of discussion on several occasions, via media, and there has been a lot of misinformation about this or that incident. Does it hurt me to know that people have made judgment calls? Well, yes, however, since I don’t hear them first hand it ought not to affect me and for the most part it doesn’t. The people who render the judgments are basing it on what they heard and I cannot fault them for that. Those at fault are the media but that is a topic for another discussion!

Generally I like to know about the subject that I am talking about or I will take a back seat in the conversation. If I am not solid in my information I can only give a tentative opinion about a subject. The other day Erik and I were talking about aliens (again) and I told him that I could really only be on the fence on the subject because I had never seen a UFO nor an alien. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the possibility of aliens. I don’t need to be on the fence about OJ because to me it was pretty clear that an innocent man would not be driving down the highway and obviously trying to escape the police. Erik brought up the Mike Tyson rape charge. I vaguely remember the story and I don’t think I really had an opinion at the time. What I did have an opinion about was that around the same time one of the Kennedy clan was also charged with rape. Mike was convicted and the Kennedy kid got off. I had an opinion about that – can you guess? Somehow, someone didn’t get justice.

Opinions. I think it’s good to have opinions, and it’s good to talk about them. But when you do, at least be somewhat savvy about what you are talking about or you might come off a bit silly.

Is Sanne savvy or silly? Anyone?