JeffThigpen.com

I’m lucky that I have friends from a variety of political perspectives.   Liberal, Conservative, Progressive, Libertarian, Christian conservative, you get the idea.   But its distressing to receive a number of emails containing some of the most deceptive, baseless, malicious, and unfounded lies you’d ever want to hear, especially in the Presidential campaigns.  And of course, this is the time of the year when many of us just love to argue.

Shankar Vedantam has written a good piece in the Washington Post about the power of political misinformation.  The main point is that even after the misinformation is debunked, it still permeates and reinforces and empowers bad information.  Right now, this stuff is all over the place.   My fellow citizens, Democrats and Republicans, we owe it to the public to raise our games a bit.

There are incredibly complex and challenging issues for our country–from war and foreign policy, to health care, reform of our economy in banking, housing, employment, climate change—the list is almost endless.

Obama, quit stretchin’ the truth on McCain and Social Security.   McCain, you’re lyin’ on Obama’s tax plan.  Dudes’, FOCUS please.  There is only around 40 days left to make your case.

And please, to all the surrogates who send out these counterfeit email spreading sultry yet  absurd fertilizer…get a life.

Jim Roach passed away yesterday.   He was a good friend and only 50 years old.  He put up a resilient fight over the past year and he’ll be missed by many in the Greensboro community.

I first met Jim during in 1995 when we were a part of the Business Pulpit Forum Work Group that met over the course of two years regarding the KMart Boycott in Greensboro.  I immediately liked Jim and his personal disposition was appealing. He was young, calm, deliberative, witty, and insightful.  He carried the respect of many local business leaders and he truly sought “reconciliation” between all the parties involved in that effort.  Jim was a great guy to be around, a good listener, and genuinely cared about his family and community.

 Over the years, Jim became a friend and I enjoyed our conversations.   Jim was inspiring to me and I really appreciated him.   While his father was a former Mayor, Jim was low key, never seeking attention for himself, but not afraid to become involved in things that mattered. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to Mary Ben, his wife, and his children. 

Factcheck.org gives the low down on trip ups, misleading comments, and spinning at the Republican and Democratic conventions.  This site is very helpful in drilling down past the rhetoric and helping folks understand what’s really going on…