Trust God but not the Internet

By Sandy Sanders
The Valdosta Daily Times

May 16, 2009 11:29 pm

— The new United States dollar coin does not have “In God We Trust” imprinted. Last week, an e-mail began to circulate calling us all to take a stand to stop the circulation of this newly minted dollar coin that no longer carried our national motto. Surely this e-mail was true because we know our government is always trying to slip something by us. That might be true sometimes but in this case the Feds are innocent.
We are the guilty ones for so quickly believing what we receive through our inbox from the World Wide Web.
The call-to-action e-mail was first circulated in 2007 when the new dollar coin was first minted. In the 1950s, Congress voted to have the phrase “In God We Trust” inscribed on all coins and paper money. No one has changed that.
The new $1 presidential coin bearing the face of our presidents was first minted in February 2007 and continues with the release of four presidents per year. In 2005, Congress passed the $1 Coin Presidential Act which called for a “larger and more dramatic imprint” on the face of the coin. To do this most everything from other coins was taken off the face. This included “In God We Trust,” the motto from our country’s seal “E Pluribus Unum,” the year of the printing and the mint mark. When you turn the coin on its side, you will find all of these on its edge. They are all still there, just not where we normally see them.
Contrary to the e-mails of 2007 or 2009, our government is not trying to “phase God out of America” or at least not by taking God’s name off of our coins.
Our computer inboxes are hit nearly every day with “forwarded” e-mails of statements we are expected to believe without question. I read recently that middle-age men and women are much more susceptible to taking these types of e-mails at face value. Our younger generation hardly ever believes one of these e-mails and will almost in every instance question its validity.
If you get the e-mail about the planet Mars getting so close to us in August that it will look like a second moon and it won’t happen again until 2087 — FALSE. It does that about every two years but not nearly as big as this e-mail is wrong.
If you saw the e-mail and picture of the Mexican Flag flying above an up-side-down American flag at a California high school it was true. The false part is that the school had anything to do with it. An outside group protesting immigration changes did this and it was corrected immediately after it happened. On the Internet even a photo can be right and wrong.
There is an old saying we should always “trust and verify” but, when it comes to the Internet and your inbox, I would suggest we should verify, then trust.