So we're all in a froth because the White House sent us some spam!

Have we got nothing more important to spend our time on? I would venture to opine that we should be more concerned about improving our knowledge and understanding of the health-care issue than debating the merits of whether we opted-in to an informative email or not.

My biggest fear is that if we allow "spam" to encompass every email that we didn't ask for, we'll become even less enlightened and less knowledgeable than we already are. Surely the fact that something is spam, does not in itself make it bad? Regardless of whether the email was sent in bulk or not, or whether I opted in or didn't, the bottom line is that if I am informed and educated by that email, then it has value to me. And can I not only make that decision once I have seen the email and evaluated its content in terms of what I want or need? Anything less and I run the risk of being an ostrich with my head in the sand.

And here's the ultimate paradox : If I didn't ask for the (emailed) information, then it's spam. New information is something I don't know about. Thus I cannot ask for new information (since I don't know about it and thus cannot ask for it). Therefore new information is spam.

To paraphrase Forest Gump ... "Spam Happens! Deal with It!"