I was wrong

It is easy to fool millions, but difficult to convince just one they have been fooled.

Around a century ago, people were just not buying alligator pears. Which was bad news for the growers of this fruit. Few would even try it. They changed the name to avocado. Problem solved.

Close to six decades ago, few seemed to be donating to “Save the Jungles.” People were thinking snakes, Piranhas and mosquitoes. So to get them thinking toucans, butterflies, and short people with rings in their noses, they changed the name of where they lived to rain forests. “Save the rain forests” became huge.

A few decades later, Californians absolutely did not want the lottery brought to their state. It would not affect the rich, be a minor nuisance to the middle class but make a large portion of the poor poorer. Proposals were overwhelmingly defeated. So, the few who wanted it said all the proceeds would go to educate the children. Brilliant! If you were against the lottery, some felt that meant to many that you were against children. It passed. What portion of the billions collected do you think go to schools?

A few decades ago, people were just not buying fish called “slim heads.” But fishermen were catching lots of them daily. So they changed the name from “slim heads” to “orange roughy.” Well done fishermen.

Not too long ago, craftsmen noted that few were buying cutting boards as gifts. Not for anniversaries, weddings or housewarmings. What would you do if you made cutting boards for sale? Enter the word “charcuterie.” Well played, craftsmen.

In the middle of all this, abortion meant destroying, killing, or ending the life of unborn babies. People just did not want (insert your favorite name for what “it” is here). A minuscule portion of the population thought it was okay. Try as they might over the decades, the vocal minority just could not win many voters over. So, they changed the reference from “abortion” to “women’s rights.” This helped, but not nearly enough.

What do you do to try and convince people that abortion is a fine thing? In a speech, someone said, “Millions of women were dying in back alleys from illegal abortions performed with rusty coat hangers.” That spread to print and news programs. It wasn’t millions or thousands, or hundreds, or even dozens. It was a handful. Personally I heard on the radio that it was millions. I saw it on the news. I read it in the paper. I believed it. I was wrong. I had been fooled.

Remember the global cooling theory promoted by a certain political party in the early 1970’s? They said Great Britain would be part of the North Pole by the year 2000. I had been fooled.

Remember the global warming theory promoted by that same political party in the early 2000’s? Remember the disasters they predicted would happen by 2015. I had been fooled.

To convince Americans of something simply say, “Scientists agree …”

Alligator pears, jungles, slim heads, and cutting boards, I don’t care what you call them, I like them.

Forget the most important part of abortion, namely ending the existence of babies, and come up with a phrase that would imply: if you are against the “termination” of “a piece of meat” you are anti women. Enter the phrase, “My body, my choice!” Some of us wonder how people who truly espouse that feel about mandated vaccines?

Jerry Maurer