What is subject to Debate? By Carlos T Mock, MD

What is subject to Debate?
By Carlos T Mock, MD
Copyright by Carlos T Mock, MD
From his book Infinitas Poetry, soon to be released.

Take a look at Tuesday night’s box score in the baseball game
Between New York and Toronto.
The Yankees won, 11-5.
Now look at the weather summary,
Showing a high of 71 for New York.
The score and temperature are not subject to debate.
Yet a president’s birthday or whether
He was even in the White House on the day TARP was passed
Are apparently open questions.

A Pew poll reporting the spike in ignorance,
Found that those who believe Obama to be Muslim
Said they got their information from the media.
But no reputable news agency—
That is, fact-based, or one that corrects its errors quickly—
Has spread such inaccuracies.
Two sources, and they are—no surprise here—
The usual suspects. The first, of course, is Rush Limbaugh:
“Tomorrow is Obama’s birthday— Not that we’ve seen any proof of that,” “They tell us Aug. 4 is the birthday; We haven’t seen any proof of that.” “Obama says he’s a Christian, but where’s the evidence?”
“I’m just throwing things out there, folks,
Because people are questioning his Christianity.”

Finally, there is Fox News,
Whose parent company has given $1 million to
Republican causes this year
But still masquerades as a legitimate source of news.
It would be nice to dismiss the stupid things
That Americans believe as harmless, or
As the price of having such a large, messy democracy.

Plenty of hate-filled partisans swore that
Abraham Lincoln was a Catholic and,
Franklin Roosevelt was a Jew.
So what if one-in-five believe the sun revolves around the earth,
Or aren’t sure from which country
The United States gained its independence?

But false belief in weapons of mass-destruction
Led the United States to a trillion-dollar war.
And trust in rising home value as a truism,
As reliable as a sunrise, was a major contributor
To the catastrophic collapse of the economy.
At its worst extreme, a culture of misinformation
Can produce something like Iran,
Which is run by a Holocaust denier.

It’s one thing to forget the past, with predictable consequences,
But what about those who refuse to comprehend the present?