A controversy has dominated the national news for the past few days over the abrupt firing of a midlevel black Agriculture Department official for comments she made that were taped by a conservative blogger. The episode is being portrayed as a teachable moment about race, or about White House sensitivity to conservative critics.

Instead, the story of the knee-jerk firing of Shirley Sherrod and next-day offer of a new, better job should be a teachable moment to not just politicians, but everyone, about the dangers of too-rapid responses and the need to slow down, learn the whole story before deciding — or doing — anything.

Today's world of YouTube videos, round-the-clock cable news and partisan talking heads has encouraged rapid, nearly instantaneous responses.

The swift decision by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask for Sherrod's resignation was followed by an offer of a new job after it was learned the short video clip was very misleading — in fact, gave an impression exactly the opposite of what the longer video revealed.

The short clip described Sherrod talking about a reluctance she once felt when a poor white farmer asked for help. But the longer clip revealed that she overcame that perspective and rejected it after realizing that she needed to help all poor people, whether they were black, white or Hispanic.

It was a powerful story of redemption and reconciliation. The details of her longer story, which the conservative blogger did not include, revealed more of Sherrod's life story. She grew up black in the South before Civil Rights. She struggled to overcome the feelings about race that resulted from the 1965 murder of her father by a white man who a white jury failed to indict, according to a report by the New York Times.

The consciousness-raising message in her full story was reinforced when the white farmer she did end up helping those many years ago came forward this week to praise Sherrod, adding that he would have lost his farm without her help.

The follow-up stories include apologies from Vilsack and speculation about whether the White House was involved in the initial bungled actions. Sherrod says she will consider the new job offer, and did eventually have a conversation with President Barack Obama.

There is a message about race and redemption here. But the bigger message is about going off half-cocked, about making a comment or decision without getting all the information first. It's about thinking.

The conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, said he posted the brief, and clearly misleading, video to show that there is racism in the federal Agriculture Department as a way to combat charges that the conservative Tea Party movement tolerates some members with racist views.

So, while race is an obvious part of this story, the bigger story should be about getting all the facts, knowing the whole story before deciding anything. It might not please cable news reporters who want instant responses, but it would have been better if Vilsack or a White House spokesman would have said, "That short video sounds troubling, but I'd like to talk to Ms. Sherrod and get the whole story before I comment."

Rather than a lesson about race, which this still can be, it should be a lesson about resisting instant responses or making comments before the full story is known.