“We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything”

When I was still a naïve young child/teenager, I loved quotes. I searched out all the quotes I could find that I liked, and I (with my limited artistic ability) wrote them up very nicely and put a design around them, and then posted them in my bedroom where I could read and think about them all the time. There were all kinds of quotes up there; some from science fiction sources, philosophers, politicians, from the classical world- they came from all over the place.

As a result of several discussions I've had today, I was reflecting on what I know and how that shapes my worldview and my understanding of it and that made me recall a quote on my wall from Thomas Edison- it's the title of my post, and it reads "We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything." I remember when I found this quote, I was blown away. I wasn't at the point yet where I wondered about context, and I never asked, like I was tempted to do today "well, what was Edison speaking about?" That's the legal side of my mind that wants to put everything in a little box. When I first found the quote, I just took it at face value; Edison meant exactly what he said- we don't know a millionth of one percent about anything. I've resisted the urge to look up the context and too keep my understanding to the child-like understanding of my youth and ignore the legal side of me that wants to delve deeper and deeper into it until it reaches the point where it means nothing.

We live in a world that is on the go 24/7. I read several newspapers (online), about twenty different blogs, have created a private news listing from an online service, follow two online forums and I am on three different news services mailing lists. Plus, I like to watch the news, and just randomly see what stories I can come across while surfing the net. And I do this daily. When I look at this, I think it's probably a little bit (if not a lot) over the top. But I don't know how to stop- I read so many sources because I don't trust the media, and I want to see things from every possible perspective so that I can piece together the "facts" given by the left and the right wing and hopefully come out to the truth somewhere in the middle. The only time I don't do this is when I go back to my parents (mostly because they only have dial-up and I can't handle waiting). Obviously, I don't need to follow all of this, because I don't miss it while I'm at home.

So, why do I do this? What drives me to spend about two hours a day reading news? Two things and they are really related. First, I want to be informed; I want to know what is going on in the world on a regular basis, especially around pro-life issues. If I am going to be a voice for the voiceless, I need to know when and where the weak are oppressed, and honestly, the mainstream media does a lousy job of telling the rest of us about what is going on; that necessitates reading a large number of varied sources to pick it all up. The second reason is I need to be informed is so I can give good rebuttals in my debates on issues that matter to me. After all, if there is one thing the left likes to do, it is to make analogies. You have to know what the analogies are to rebut them.

I also like to post on this blog about pro-life legal issues going on in the world, but to be honest, at best I post 1 a day. In reading all the reading I do, there are probably 6-7 different pro-life related stories every day. So, in my roundabout way, the purpose of this post is to encourage you to go to www.lifesitenews.com to stay updated on what's going on regarding life issues. (One of the services I subscribe to is an e-mail digest from Lifesite news).

While there is a lot to do every day, staying informed and educating yourself is important. So, with whatever spare time you do have, I encourage you to stay updated on the news, and talk to your friends and family about it. That's one way to keep the prolife message in the forefront of people's minds.

But, at the end of the day, just remember Thomas Edison: "we don't know a millionth of one percent about anything."