Many Americans choose to have others do their thinking for them when it comes to issues that need deep analysis and research. Consequently, whether they’d like to admit it or not, their opinions on these issues have been influenced by Hollywood films and the mainstream broadcasting networks and press. When it comes to the environment, government conspiracy theories, and, most of all, the issue of abortion, people’s ideological biases and personal agendas can override factual data.

The film “The Day After Tomorrow” was the latest nonsensical Hollywood offering dramatizing the cataclysmic effects of global warming, a favorite topic of Vice President Gore. But the history of disaster films based on environmental hysteria goes way back to the 1950s, when Hollywood milked the public fear of the Cold War through apocalyptic horror films. Those movies showcased man’s scientific manipulation of nature, which resulted in the creation of giant ants, rats, and rabbits, frogs, and even tomatoes. In 1973, the liberal fear of overpopulation wrought the Charlton Heston opus “Soylent Green.” That crowd-pleaser depicted a 21st-century world of mass hunger and anarchy, in which the only source of food is soylent green, a substance of unknown origin. Voluntary suicide is assisted by a government agency, which sends the citizen off to the hereafter with halcyon images of trees, flowers, waterfalls, and a natural beauty that no longer exists.

Well, it’s 2004,and those beautiful images still exist, and, so far, none of the gigantic animal mutations threaten the world. Although I have seen some rather healthy-sized New Jersey tomatoes, they haven’t yet managed to careen down the street pulverizing pedestrians.

In Hollywood films, the government is always secretive and evil, hiding the truth from the American public that an alien ship crash-landed in Area 51.You mean you didn’t know about that? Apparently, the government has kept the spaceship and the bodies of those aliens in an area called Groom Lake, which is 90 miles north of Las Vegas. Thank goodness they’ve done that, because when the aliens finally do attack us, as they did in the film “Independence Day,” we’ll be able to use the space technology from the captured spacecraft to defeat the invading horde.

The mythological enemy government theory was further promulgated by the hit television show “The X-Files.” I thought it ridiculous that any governmental undertaking that involved tons of military personnel could ever be done secretly. Surely, the wives, husbands, and other relatives and friends of the service personnel involved would have broken the alien capture story long before now.

All of this may seem ridiculous to anyone with half a brain, but there is no doubt that the influence of film has been substantial in many political issues. It is a shame that in the one area where truth is absolutely essential, Hollywood seems adamant about promoting its agenda via celebrities and disingenuous entertainment vehicles. I expect the sad death of Christopher Reeve will galvanize anew appeals for embryonic stem-cell research, even though no ban on this research exists. Billionaires George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry and their friends in Hollywood could come up with the funds, since they don’t see any problem in the destruction of human life that the research entails.

Ever since Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, films have been skewed to present abortion either as the only choice a woman has in a crisis pregnancy or as a critical civil right endangered by extreme right-wing fanatics. In “The Cider House Rules,” Michael Caine plays a benign abortionist who passes his mantle of saintliness to his protege, Tobey Maguire. Abortion rights advocates have succeeded in portraying prolifers as interested only in the fetus, not the woman. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I’ve yet to see a film offering a positive view of adoption as an alternative to abortion.

Last week I was invited to an annual award ceremony by the Catholic Home Bureau, which provides a number of social services to the community. Among these is the Maternity Services and Private Adoption Program. I spoke to the director of development, Edward Short, and asked him: “How do you handle a case where a young woman needs help with her home life?”

He answered, “Once an expecting mother enters our door, we do everything we can to see to it that she delivers a healthy baby into a strong, stable home. So whatever she needs – whether it’s a crib or layettes or maternity clothes or baby clothes or emergency rent money or help with immunization – she gets. And this is in addition to the pre- and post-natal care and counseling.” Referrals are also provided to maternity and domestic-violence shelters. Services are offered to all denominations and are available 24/7.

The truth really is out there, for anyone who knows where to look.