Yeah, it does to me.

This morning on Facebook I read a couple of things. They interested me so i continued to read more about them and found that the information provided might be wrong, but was presented as fact. Does it matter? No, not really. Does it bug me? It does.

Nothing changes the fact that the stuff i was reading - one was a great quote related to writing, the other was a "meme" that told us that it was a national week of celebration. In one case, i was so interested, i found a reference librarian through my public library who spent at least 20 minutes trying to find the source of a quote that's all over the web. in more than one version. I liked it, so i wanted to know where it appeared. If it was in a book or essay, I wanted to read that book or essay. If it was from an interview, well ditto.

We did not find the quotation. Reference librarian Gregg passed it on to the local library to continue looking. But with the resources at his beck and call, that he was unable to find a simple sentence made me think that we have a "Vonnegut MIT Commencement Speech" situation here. (search for this if you don't know it. It's a great speech. It was never written or delivered by Kurt Vonnegut. Translation? It's still a great line, and will not stop being a great line but the person it's attributed to did not say it and should not get the credit.

There are countless tag lines, from movies to books to just plain life, which are inaccurate or mis-attributed. The world keeps turning and it's not all that bad a thing. But, in recent years, too many people have played fast and loose with a thing called the truth. There are things that are fact. They should be so honored. It's not okay to say "close enough" in a lot of cases. I think it matters.

Some years back, I was dismayed to read that one of the stirring speeches that I loved, a speech that spoke to the heart of women's liberation, of the issues of freedom and slavery, racism and history was not real. As a feminist growing up in the 60s and 70s, i could not avoid that great "Ain't I A woman" speech. Sweet Honey in the Rock honored Sojourner Truth by setting that speech to music. It moved us. It was stirring.

Here's the problem. Sojourner Truth never said those words. Yes, she spoke at a Women's Rights Convention in Ohio. it was 1851. A month later, this speech was recorded in a publication. Over ten years later, the organizer of the event published her completely made-up version of Truth's speech. See http://www.sojournertruth.org/Library/Speeches/Default.htm

What Truth said was wonderful, by the way. there are similarities in the "real" speech and the now legendary speech. But facts matter. Truth matters. Nothing I read today on Facebook is earth-shaking in any way. Holmes never said "Elementary, My Dear Watson". It's probable that Emma Goldman never said anything about dancing and revolution (and yes, I had the tee shirt as a member of the Emma Goldman Affinity Group, part of LAG in the 80s)

So does it matter? Some yes, some no. We get to decide. But there is a decision to be made. The world will keep on turning, I know that. But let's not be so quick to accept what is written as fact, okay?