Sadly Mistaken

Mistakes happen. If a first step is to admit the mistake, a next step must be to make changes so that the error isn't repeated. Making mistakes and learning from them can be empowering. In ancient times, it was thought that fixing one's mistakes cultivated virtue.

From the Even Bookmarks Have Expiry Dates file:
Bessie Ellison Elementary School in Missouri distributed HIV/AIDS - awareness bookmarks to the grade 6 class. A student dialed the number printed on the bookmark and it connected to a hardcore sex hot-line.
The toll-free number was once owned by Teens Teaching AIDS Prevention, part of the Kansas City-based nonprofit Good Samaritan Project. However, the AIDS hot line has not been functional since last year and a sex hot line has since taken over the number.

From the Always Check The Source of the Fax file:
Officials in Kentucky mistakenly released a prisoner from a facility after receiving a phony fax that ordered him freed, and it took them nearly two weeks to realize it.
The fax contained grammatical errors, was not typed on letterhead and was sent from a local grocery store. The fax falsely claimed that the Kentucky Supreme Court "demanded" Timothy Rouse be released.
Rouse, 19, is charged with beating an elderly man and was at the Kentucky Correctional & Psychiatric Center in La Grange for a mental evaluation. He was released after officials received the fake court order.

From the Good Fences Make Good Neighbors file:
A 2 1/2-kilometre barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. The barrier was part of more than 24 kilometres of border fence built in 2000.

	Here's hoping a teacher checks the phone number on bookmarks next time; prison officials verify release orders every time; and border officials will measure twice.
(Click to enlarge)

"If you know that you made a mistake and you don't correct it, that's truly a mistake." (Confucius)


Tags: [Despair Incorporated Satirical Products]
[Good Samaritan Project]
[U.S. Customs & Border Protection]
[Confucius]