It once was…
Information sources were standard and believable. Libraries. The card catalogue. The blessed Oxford English Dictionary, the standard for scholarly and accurate information. Newsweek. Time. The New Republic. The New Yorker. Newspapers both local and national with news separated from the opinion page. Newscasts from recognized reporters whose veracity determined how long they would be on air.
Facts were checked and double checked. A mistake would be retracted. It took a long time to research a subject, but we knew that was necessary to find out about the world. We researched thoroughly. We had information we could rely on.
That was then. Now we have Google. I admit I have no idea of who or what Google is.
Where does the information come from? Who checks the accuracy? Who or what is the gathering method? Are all sources added, evaluated, judged, some discarded (if so, on what basis is the discard made?) Are foreign languages translated for the information? Are there sources that are not included?
Without knowing just what I am doing, I Google. It is fast, wide ranging, presented with a degree of authority, and accepted as fact. I gird my loins (does Google let women do that?) and Google some basic facts about the state of Arkansas, our U.S. senators, representatives, and the current human round-ups and deportations.
Since 1963 we have had four congressional districts (although for three decades before that there were seven districts). Looking at an Arkansas map, the four districts are weird to the eye, weird as to how they were drawn. The criteria are said to be by population, compactness (whatever that means), and communities of interest. There are four congressmen and, as with all states, two senators.
All six of these gentlemen voted for what is happening now: high prices; loss of affordable healthcare; masked thugs rounding up, incarcerating, deporting and disrupting families whose skin is not white; tearing apart protective legislation; telling lies and insulting women; blasting people and boats out of the waters; stealing an oil tanker; insisting that a president is above all laws.
Not a questioning whisper from any of the six.
But what does Google tell us about the human roundups?
In this year of 2025, 1800 people have been taken from Arkansas streets. In Benton County alone 450 people have been taken and sent to ICE holding prisons in Louisiana. No numbers are available for Carroll County, but that doesn’t say no one has been taken because, Google tells us, all that information has not been made public. And Carroll County shares borders with Benton. Would a line on a map deter a masked thug?
People have been taken from all four Congressional districts, they are “held” in local facilities, then sent to the ICE facilities. No mention of appearing before a court, of proof of serious crime… they are just “taken.”
No questions from our six gentlemen reps.
I come from the mountains of Western Montana where there were yearly roundups… branding/ear tagging, castration (yes, the origin of Rocky Mountain Oysters that morphed into Testicle Festival booths at rodeos), shots, separation, etc. I can accept that roundup even with its inherent brutality.
It is impossible to accept the brutality of human roundups: four hundred and fifty taken from their homes in Benton County, deported, no information about what happened to the rest. People now afraid to go outside their homes. Why? Skin with pigment darker than mine. An accent different from mine. I am protected; they are rounded up like animals.
Google doesn’t respond to questions about ethical, moral, legal, or political values.
Voters do. We do. We will.