Retraction of Words Never Written

Can you retract something you never said/wrote? Retraction/plagiarism/admission of error has been all the journalistic rage over the past few years. Mitch Albom (what a great rundown of the whole "scandal" here), Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley, and so many more.

Anyway, I had this terrific post started the other day about poverty in America - it was going to talk about John Edwards a little bit, give some numbers that are absolutely mind-boggling, and some other stuff too. But I realized I can't post that because I don't think I have any credibility on that issue. I don't particularly do a whole lot to help the poor. We give to our church every week, and give a little more when there's a special collection for a cause we believe in, but that's not doing a whole lot. We donate stuff to Goodwill, but that's not entirely altruistic either.

Although I don't want to get preachy or pretend to be an authority, I do care about this, and it's horrifying to me, as a resident of the richest county in the richest country in the world, that poverty and homelessness exists everywhere. So I will close by saying that you should do whatever you can in your community. It could be the difference in someone's life. And I retract the other stuff.