Rumor Has It

I only recently discovered the semi-hoopla about Barack Obama and his birth certificate.  My first encounters with it were on message boards related to a number of stories on Fox News' website.  From what I've learned, quite a few people took the whole thing very seriously, enough at least to move on with legal action.  Here is a basic overview of the story, from a source I have come to look at often, Snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp


Funny thing is, the story got revived inadvertantly, or who knows, maybe even deliberately recently following some comments by a Republican Senator.  Here is a good starting point:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/22/richard-shelby-alabama-se_n_168913.html


If anybody is wondering why I'm bringing up this particular issue on my blog, it is really to illustrate that rumors, and the act of creating and subsequently propagating them, is one of those political tactics that transcends almost everything--race, culture, you name it.  Last during that silent period of the Constitutional election on our membership requirements, a number of people who favored the changes were irritated with Council because they did not feel there was any effort put forth to dispell rumors that the amendments would lead to some enormous ballooning in the Tribal population.  Personally, I think the complaints had merit.  Although we had a good if not entirely accurate estimate of population growth, 298 more members give or take, I do think the rumors that there would be more than a thousand new enrollees scared some voters.  More to the point, I think my peers who wanted the amendments to fail were okay letting that rumor run rampant.  It came to a minor head during the community meeting in Portland, when one Tribal member actually got a couple of Council members to admit that the exaggerated numbers were not realistic.  Of course, only those present would have heard...
Rumors played a bigger role in the efforts to smear the ABC/PPP Council members following their elections.  As I recall, there were a number of letters in 2005 that were written entirely to discredit us, the worst of course being the anonymous flyer mailed out following Wink Soderberg and Kathy Tom's elections in September about how we were going to scale back per capita to $4000 among other things.  That might have been the most people to ever show up for a Wednesday night meeting at that time.
You never really know when a rumor is going to take, or how.  I do believe half the time they are started deliberately, though.  When I think back to that September 2005 anonymous flyer, one thing stands out.  I was warned by somebody who up until then never at all seemed a fan of mine.  But this person had some clear problems with what was going to happen.  So a week before he came and warned me, and even told me who was responsible.  For all I know this person did it themselves, but in this case that doesn't seem likely.  What matters is he was right.  One week later that anonymous letter hit a bunch of mailboxes, and we were flooded with phone calls, emails, verbal comments, and a three-hour Wednesday night meeting.  If creating the perception that this new Council was going to be trouble was the goal, then they might have scored some points with the stunt.
Rumors are effective when there is an environment of distrust around.  It doesn't help when people don't like the source of the truth either.  I don't expect rumors, in Grand Ronde or elsewhere, to ever really stop.  Ultimately, it is upon the readers, viewers, and listeners to mine for the truth.  Problem is, who wants to research everything?  Outside of those in academia, hard core politics, or journalism, not many people have the time.  They simply put faith in those who distribute the information and hope for the best.  Sadly, that is where it all starts.   

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