Naturally, this kind of thing isn’t limited to the Internet –
it’s as old as time itself. Last summer, some of you may have noticed a slight
blackout that left about four million of us on the East Coast without power. I
was living in a rural location at the time – well, more rural than my present
location – and my neighborhood was without power for a couple of weeks. The
nearest town, which has about 5,000 residents, was without power for a few
days. Early on in the blackout, someone called to let us know that the fire department would be shutting off the town’s water supply and that we
should all fill up our bathtubs and containers to prepare. Panicking and
bathtub filling commenced.
I, however, was suspicious. We had been listening for public
service announcements on the battery-operated radio and this is the kind of
thing you’d think they would include in such an announcement.
“Who did you hear this from?” I asked. “Has anyone called
the fire department to confirm that it’s true?”
Everyone gawked at me like I’d grown a second head because,
of course, no one had thought to call the fire department and ask if they were
really planning to cut off fresh water to thousands of people who were already
in a crisis situation. This is just one of many examples of how you shouldn't just go around blindly believing everything you hear, because, as it turned out, the fire department
planned no such thing.
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| And we all lived happily ever after and drank lots of water, the end. |
