Urban Legends & Political Distortion

A couple of days ago someone forwarded to me one of those typical emails that asks you to read what is enclosed and then pass it on to your friends. I can't stand them because the original author, as well as the person who is forwarding the message, typically has a political agenda designed to distort the truth at almost any cost in the defense of their own political leanings. The email I received was clearly meant as a blatant attack on Barack Obama.

It claimed to list several quotes from Obama's book The Audacity of Hope including this one: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.' Wow, that sounds pretty damning doesn't it.... Ok, now read it in context and tell me that the above quote wasn't totally distorted and taken out of context:

Actual quote - "Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." (page 261).