The internet is a dangerous place.  Not because of child predators, or cyber bullying, spyware or viruses, but because it is an enormous platform for spreading ignorance and hate.  I got a forward from my dad tonight with the subject line “The crotch salute again!”.  In it was the following:

“At the Ft. Hood Memorial Service… The crotch salute returns again!

I am sorry folks, but In the United States of America I do believe that saluting the flag goes with respecting and honoring the service members who have died.  Does this pompous ass believe he is above that gesture? He can shower us all with flowery words and dazzle us with his B.S., but actions speak louder.  This sucks! Now tell me our Muslim President isn’t an anti-American! EVERYONE needs to see this Pix!”

Furious with the way this was worded, and suspecting this to be a fake because Naval officers were in the background of a Army memorial, I did some research.  Fortunately CSPAN has complete coverage of the Ft. Hood Memorial Service, which you can view here.  If you notice, the cloth surrounding the podium is black, not blue.  Furthermore, there is a smaller American flag and additional military flags behind the podium during the memorial.

While I had enough to prove my point I was still not satisfied and did a little more investigating looking to Snopes.com to hopefully find more on this email.  Sure enough, I discovered that the crotch salute email was not only circulated following the Ft. Hood memorial, but also after Memorial Day.  Fortunately, Snopes does a lot of the leg work for you and identified footage on YouTube of the actual event in which President Obama stood there hands on his “crotch” and a smirk on his face.  It turns out it was played during Hail to the Chief at a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

My father is by no means an ignorant man, but as you can see in this situation he was lead to believe a blatant lie because information spread via the internet lead him to believe that it was true.  You see, the internet is a dangerous place because it allows us to judge and make decisions without thinking.  We let the message it delivers us do the thinking and we are quick to react as though it is fact.

President Barack Obama is not anti-American, the assholes that are starting emails like the one I saw tonight are anti-American because they tarnish events and places meant to remind us of those who have died for our freedoms, with blatant lies and hatred.  The next time you receive an email like this, I hope you stop and do your homework.  I was able to crack the case with 2 searches.  One on Google for Fort Hood Memorial Service video and another on Snopes.com for crotch salute.