Perception VS Fact in U.S. Policy

From the battle over health care reform to the U.S boycotting the U.N racism conference; why is it that U.S. policy is continuously shaped by the public perception of things rather than actual facts? Last April the United Nations held its second World Conference on Racism and the United States boycotted the event because it was perceived as anti-Semitic. Now how, you may ask, could an event specifically targeted to combat racism be itself racist? Well most of it has to do with the first conference held in Durban, South Africa of 2001. The controversy started at the Non-Government Organization forum where the Arab Lawyers Union handed out a pamphlet depicting Jews with bloody fangs and hook noses. The NGO forum and it's participants are in no way affiliated with the U.N. and it's members; civil gatherings such as these, whether or not they're participants act civil, are standard operating procedure at something like the Durban conference. The resulting Manifesto that came out of the NGO forum was a detestable document that equated Zionism with racism and those sympathetic to Israel, or those simply with a heart beating in their chest, should have been disgusted by it; which is why the U.N. condemned the NGO forum and did not allow one to take place at the second conference known as Durban II. So just to re-cap, U.N. not racist; some people at an event that does not represent the views of the U.N., racist. End of story right? Wrong. Long after Durban I critics still claimed that the conference was an anti-Semitic hate-fest. Here are a few excerpts from the Declaration that resulted from the first conference:

Paragraph 63: We are concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation. We recognize the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of and independent State and we recognize the right of security for all States in the region including Israel, and call upon all States to support the peace process and bring it to an early conclusion.

Paragraph 61: We recognize with deep concern the increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in various parts of the world, as well as the emergence of racial and violent movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities.

Paragraph 58: We recall that the Holocaust must never be forgotten.

Do any of the above statements sound like the ravings of discriminatory lunatics? Of course not. What's even more puzzling is that Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres praised the Durban Declaration as "an accomplishment of the first order for Israel." Then why has the U.S. Government and the public at large perceived the Durban conference's to be a hot bed for bigotry when the facts clearly do not back up that perception?

This phenomenon of allowing perception to trump facts is prevalent in U.S. domestic policy as well. Take for example the, "Deather," movement that was spawned from a benign portion of the Democrats health care proposal. The End of Life Counseling Provision would be a completely voluntary process that would assist seniors in choosing or refusing certain types of health care and other decisions that we all have to make at the end of our lives. Critics, most notably Sara Palin, have managed to twist this into some sort of government mandated euthanasia program. The perception in the mind of the public that President Obama was creating "Death Panels" would soon lead the Democrats to remove the End of Life Counseling provision from the bill.

If these trends continue, what's next? Will Obama cave to the "Birthers?" It seems ridiculous but the very notion that a movement such as the Birther's can catch on is just as ludicrous as the idea that the president would appease these nut cases by admitting that he is in fact not an American citizen! Or perhaps President Bush will finally admit to the "Truthers" that yes, he was in fact behind 9/11! How does this stuff catch on? Are Americans that stupid? Is it the media that fans the flames on these seemingly fringe movements that become more mainstream everyday? I think a case can be made for both arguments. One things for certain though; allowing perceptions rather than facts rule our lives has already cost us what could have been an important moment in battling racism the world over as well as an important measure in health care reform. Until the citizens in this country start dealing in FACTS and demand that their leaders do the same we will continue to make the same mistakes in the future.