Mr Fumento, Fla_Medic and Quentin Tarantino

As it happens Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is one of my all time favorite movies.  In it is one of my all time favorite lines, a fictional passage from the Bible, Ezekiel 25:17.

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

I have been amusing myself watching the Fumento/Fla_Medic blog battle (Fumento here, FM here, here, Fumento here, FM here) I would recommend reading the posted comments as well, they are integral.  Coincidentally, I am watching Pulp Fiction for about the 300th time, which is what brought the above quote from the movie to my mind.

While Fla_Medic, FM as I affectionately call him, doesn’t need me to speak for him, nor do I presume to do so, I must weigh in on this argument in my own opinioned style.  But first an admission must be recorded.  FM is associated with P4P, a pandemic flu forum that I am part owner in, he is also numbered amongst the folk I call "friend".  I have actually met FM, a rarity in the cyber world.  I know his character, his dedication, and his intellectual honesty on issues of PanFlu.

This entire dust-up occurred because Mr. Fumento took exception to FM’s disagreement to his WeeklyStandard article and posted a blog entry recording his opinions, as I did here, and in fact, many in the Flu/Pandemic Bloggesphere did.  It was an easy and obvious target, and given that bloggers are known for their penchant for sharing their opinions, whether wanted or not, of course we were gonna speak our peace.

OK, so why did I quote a line from Pulp Fiction?

These two sentences say it all: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness."

Admitting that I am not religiously affiliated I still believe that FM is contributing to the much sought after knowledge in the manner his expertise and innate reasoning enable him.  He makes no presumptions of knowing the answers, or being an expert.  What he does, he does for free…in other words….in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness", is apropos, even if I don’t class myself amongst "the weak."

I have learned much from FM’s contributions, much that may mean the difference of life and death to those that I love, not to mention myself, if a severe pandemic should manifest, and I know that I am not alone in benefiting from his dedicated labors.

Mr Fumento is acting like a spoiled child when someone has the audacity to publicly disagree with him.  Mr Fumento’s biggest bone of contention is FM’s statement that the likelihood of a pandemic occurring in 2007 is 50/50.  What FM failed to take into account is that Mr Fumento would be unable to understand the underlying meaning of that statement.  I, as a cyber colleague, instantly understood his meaning…."It either will or it won’t", hence the 50/50.  Something that most of those familiar with the non-scientific Flubies would have understood instantly as well.  In fairness to Mr Fumento, he is not a "Flubie." 

But not being a "Flubie" doesn’t mean Mr Fumento isn’t intelligent, and having read his original article that started this round-robin I have not doubt of his intelligence.  I just don’t agree with his assertions, neither does FM, or many others.  Time will tell who is ultimately right and who is wrong, and for the record, I do hope it is Mr Fumento who is right.

But this is America, the country of residence of Mr Fumento, FM and myself.  There is a wonderful, and sacrosanct, document known as The Constitution of the United States of America.  An addendum to it is the equally sacred (to me anyway) document known as the Bill of Rights.  The very first amendment listed in the Bill of Rights is, oddly enough, the First Amendment,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Since Mr Fumento is an attorney, as well as an author and journalist, I feel safe in my assumption that he understands, supports, and would even defend, the concepts of free speech and freedom of the press.

Freedom of speech…it’s a beautiful thing…even when we don’t agree with what is being said.  To understand an issue with any thoroughness we must be open to all sides, we must allow, and even nurture, dissent.  And, as Mr Fumento clearly defines himself as an Iconoclast on his website’s masthead I would think he would revel in the intellectual challenge of differing POV’s and not be insulted that someone, much less a "mere" former paramedic, had the audacity to disagree with someone who has a flawless twenty year track record.  Iconoclasm if I ever saw it.

In the end, I have enjoyed the silly drama as I know FM has, and that no one has changed their minds or positions because of the cybersphere rants and rambles of either side of the issue.

Thank you Mr Fumento for affording me the opportunity to praise a man who I feel deserves it.