Agree or Delete

A few days ago, I received a forwarded email from a relative with the subject line “Agree or Delete.” The email is mostly full of trivia about the founding fathers and the architectural details that can be found around Washington, D.C. It’s harmless enough, if largely inaccurate. I’ve got no problem with people who want the ten commandments displayed at the capital, or even have a prayer read before Congress. But what comes in the last bit of the email, I have a big problem with.

I was asked to send this on if I agreed, or delete if I didn’t.

Now it is your turn…

It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or “In God We Trust” on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don’t we just tell the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!
– From the “Agree or Delete” email.

Let’s ignore the faulty logic that figures if 86% of Americans believe in God, it must follow that every single one of them agrees with the stance taken in the email. Instead, I’d like to focus on the larger point.

The author asks you to either pass this along if you agree, or delete if you don’t. It sounds reasonable enough, but it’s really just a polite way to phrase the conclusion to the email.

Anyone who disagrees needs to shut up.

That’s the part that really got to me. You have an opinion, fine. You want to broadcast your opinion far and wide, fine. You want to spam me with it? Well, that’s not really fine, but even that I can roll with. But don’t you dare spew this kind of vitriol into my inbox and cap it off by telling me that I don’t have the right to reply.

Even assuming the best about my relatives, that they either didn’t read the email all the way through before forwarding it, or that they didn’t realize how truly offensive it would be to someone who doesn’t share their beliefs, this email still gets my blood pumping two days later.

It amazes me that people (and I’m referring to the kind of people who author emails like this, not the relatives who forwarded it) can be so hypocritical. This entire email is founded on the ideals of the first amendment, yet they conclude by denying anyone who disagrees the very rights they are supposedly defending.

I thought about it for a few days, and decided that as badly as I wanted to, there was no tactful way for me to reply to this email. Any response I sent would either aggravate the situation or horribly embarrass the sender. But the more time went by, the more the email upset me until I decided that I had to respond in some way¹. So, if you’re a relative of mine, please don’t take this personally.

“You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”
– President Andrew Shepherd in The American President.

That quote says it perfectly. The first amendment cuts both ways. You have the right to say and believe anything you want, but so do people who believe the opposite. Next time you go to forward a political email — or any kind of email — consider how it sounds to someone who might not hold the same points of view as you. The line between sharing your patriotic zeal and offending someone might be thinner than you think.