Words are powerful weapons
LT. C_WIR. SHOLI'ES
USS CABLE
Fog
• C,real minds discuss idems, aver-
age minds discuss events, small
minds discu* people. " This låmouq
quote from Admiral Rickover sljll
rings B-ue. Unfortunately, of
Ihc people around seem to be-
long the lhird category; they
spend their enLins life with gossip,
They often make stories or twist
truth to make their story more in-
teresling.
They either do it to get anention ,
or to ham. others. They don '1 seem
to care thal blemishing one's good
narne is effectively trying to deqtmy
individual.
In the last two this prac-
tice became so commonplace that
•we gave it a name: • chancter
ginaiion. ' We use that term for fa-
CHAPEL'S
mous folks and politicians. but how
important a person has to be to hc
assassinated' and not •murdend
The intent is the same. May the tu-
get bc famous or your next-door
neighbor, accusations can be lethal
and costiy, as we have seen with die
Duke University lacrosse caw,
Words arc powerful weapons.
Jewish and MLßlim laws are very
specific aboul (his kind of crime.
Accusations must be collaLXHated,
and if Woven to ulfiundcd, åcy
hold the acu'untable_ Our
judicial system dces not automati-
tally shift the charge* againxt the
accuser. and defamation of charac-
tcr is a civil maller, twt a
felony case.
The accuser rarely experiences
repercussioms, but the victim's n.:p-
utation is eitheL ntincd tarnished.
The the accusation nev-
er leally disappears. Most people
unfoltunatcly believe that "if ther
is smoke, ther must a fire sorne-
when:" , even i r the smoke was fab-
ricæted.
'[he movie field of Dreams seLs
record straight for Ihe late Shoe-
less Jackson of the Chicago
While Sox w EID accused of fix-
ing games. He died with shame and
a broken spirit. The Navy just rc-
ccndy cleared the name of the late
Commanding Officer of the USS
Indianapolis. The former president
of Augüia, Kurt Waldheim also die{i
last year without ever Ixing cleared
of the nasty charges of being a war
Many of us have been targeted by
naso- gossips, which are nothing
less than an infomul accusaLion_ T
have seen relationshiBs torn apart
by them. Ille-y me the soumeof alot
of headaches and
you hear agcws•ip you need
to ask these questions: ( I ) "How do
you know Lhat the stoty is true?"
And (2) '"Is this going to benefit
me to know?" If you get a 'no' ror
of the two questions, you may
not want to hear thzü gossip. Also re-
member: Those who make up or re-
tell a gossip ale guilty of two things,
they want to ruin wmv-u-n:'g life and
make look Irtter Ln the
eyes of others. Do you really want
to hang out with people like that?
Don •t a small-minded person
who enjoys hulling The one
ly way to stop gossip is by lefusirlg
to listen to them.
jesus-is-savior.com