"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing."- Mark Twain
Some time ago, my husband informed me that Mr. Rogers, of the children's television show "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood," had been a renowned sniper in Vietnam. When I argued that this seemed very unlikely, he was adamant. When I asked him how he knew, he admitted that my brother had told him. When I then asked my brother about this, he was also adamant that it was true, and he became vehement in defending the story. When I asked him how HE knew, he told me our father had told him. (Ah! Who can argue with authority?) When I asked my father about it, he couldn't remember where he'd heard it, but he was at least open to what I discovered via a little internet research: That the story was nothing more than an urban legend. If you think about it, the only things we truly know are those we've personally experienced.
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