Tough to heal the divide in U.S.

I searched my computer Monday morning with the term “Clinton” to discover how many items on my hard drive included that word.
My computer had 290 e-mails, stories, etc. with the word Clinton included in the copy or title.
After it was announced Friday about more than 600,000 e-mails being discovered on a shared laptop of a Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, Anthony Wiener, I had never before thought about how many things that have passed through my computer about a certain subject.
The latest was an unflattering picture sent to me of Hillary by a friend in Kenora. The metadata about the photo included the term “Clinton.”
Every computer has a search mechanism to find items. It uses metadata, which is simply data about data.
Indiana University uses the following description: “It is the descriptive information about a particular data set, object, or resource, including how it is formatted, and when and by whom it was collected. Although metadata most commonly refers to web resources, it can be about either physical or electronic resources.
“It can be created automatically using software or entered by hand.”
Most libraries were creating metadata manually long before computers were in use, tracking subject matter on cards to shorten the time researchers needed to access manuscripts, books, or previous research.
When computers came along, by parsing the documents’ words, the metadata was created automatically.
I don’t know how many files and e-mails that I have on my computer, nor do I know how many have been trashed. I suspect that I’ve gone through more than 700,000 files in my history at the newspaper.
Even when items are trashed, they still remain on the computer’s hard drive. Information is almost impossible to erase without some very specialized help.
All of this had me thinking about the discovery of some 650,000 e-mails by the FBI on a search of Anthony Weiner’s laptop, some of which had information about Hillary Clinton.
No one could state what the information was nor of its significance, nor of how any of those 650,000 e-mails were to or from Clinton.
Without going back to each article or e-mail on my computer, I could not tell you of its significance. I have a home computer, a tablet, and a cellphone that all collect my e-mails. It makes doing work while travelling or at home easier to forward information or reply to requests while I’m out of the office.
Altogether, I have no idea of how many total files may include the word “Clinton.”
The letter delivered Friday to the U.S. Congress hinted at new information on the e-mail scandal. That was without ever knowing what was in the files.
In the letter to Congress, Mr. Comey said the FBI had yet to determine whether “this material may be significant.”
I suspect that the FBI would like to look at everyone’s computer across the U.S. The National Security Agency probably already is looking at the files anyway, but can’t let the public know that.
Most everything that has been learned today is based on false, undocumented rumours and innuendo.
Whatever happens next Tuesday, I suspect that neither candidate will be able to heal the divide that this election has brought on the United States.