Friends, I am not normally a send it out to the world kind of person, but this issue is pressing, and it is important, and while I mainly use this blog to reflect on work, I feel that this is important enough to risk backlash at work by posting here.
As you may be aware, President Obama is going to address the nation’s school children at noon eastern time on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. His message will be to encourage the children of this great country of ours to do well in school. No partisanship, no talk of health care or of the other topics that are currently in debate around our country.
You may not know, however, that there is a movement underway to derail this message. There is a small, but vocal group that is petitioning school districts to not show the president’s address. My school district received dozens of phone calls and emails today with parents threatening to pull their children out of school on September 8 and trying to bully the school district into not showing the address. We have heard talks of the president “brainwashing” students and using his position to promote his political agenda.
As usual, the lies and misinformation spread by those wishing to derail the president’s address are leading to panic and confusion. This was obviously an orchestrated event, since the wording on several emails was very similar and the phone calls and emails all started around the same time late this morning.
Please do not let the loud voices of a vocal minority take over the education of your child. Please let your voice be heard. Call and email your child’s schools and let them know that the president encouraging your children to do well in school is a message you want your child to hear. Do not let fear and hate win out in this. Call and email your schools and the district office every day until September 8 and let them know what an important and historical event this will be, and that you do not want your child to miss out on it. Do not take no for an answer. Please pass this along to as many people as you can, and do it fast!
Accountability has gone right out the window
6 05 2009The past 10 days or so have been very hectic, and I’ve learned a couple of things about participating in an online discussion that I guess I’ve always known to be true, but it’s all come back home since this H1N1 virus hit.
Some of you, out there in Internet land, are just frickin’ rude.
Mind you, I’m not talking about getting my own feelings hurt. What I’m talking about here is that the Internet has allowed anyone to have an anonymous voice for saying whatever they want to say.
I’m all about free speech, but I’m also about taking responsibility for your actions.
I’ve learned (and again, I already knew this, but boy it hit home) that some people just need something to complain about. If you don’t put info out there for them, they complain. If you do put info out there for them, the complain about the info that you’ve put out, or the info that you’re not putting out that they need to know right now.
Case and point. Our district started a Twitter account just as another avenue to get information to the public about what was going on with the closure due to H1N1. There were people who signed up for Twitter accounts just to follow us, and some of those people, the only posts they had on their Twitter accounts were @ reply complaints to us (dig through some of those…there’s some really nasty ones). Seriously. If the only reason you’re signing up for an account is to gripe, don’t sign up. And by the way, if you’re going to be rude and demanding information, don’t expect an answer.
There was another gentleman who followed us that griped when we tweeted the proceedings of a school board meeting. If we hadn’t put any info out, he probably would have complained about that, too.
Another problem I have with all of this anonymous griping is that now the news sites are getting in on the game. They allow anyone to register for an account and comment on their stories. In the past, people who wrote letters to the editor of a newspaper at least had to have their name verified, and their name and city got published along with their letter, opening them to public ridicule if their comments were stupid.
Now, there isn’t any accountability, and that, combined with people’s lack of tact and a filter, has lead the stupid right out in the open.
Just take a look at any of your local news sites and you’ll see exactly what I mean. The comments about “the illegals” and the personal sniping that has gone in the comments sections of the local stories about H1N1 just shows how idiotic people can be, and I don’t think it has any place on a news site.
Whatever happened to shame? Whatever happened to disgracing your family name? There was a time in America where people had morals, and when the moral code was broken, people were shamed. That moral code has gotten looser and looser, to the point where nothing is shameful anymore.
Now don’t get me confused with some right-wing nut job. I think that people ought to be left alone to do their own thing, but when others start trying to tell me that this or that is going to ruin the moral fabric of this country, I just have to look around and laugh. The moral fabric of this country was tattered and torn long, long ago, and the people screaming the loudest are more than likely the ones who helped rip it to shreds.
So what will the turning point be? When will poeple STFU and realize that they sound stupid when they spout off? Will it take a major news site requiring the name and address of anyone who wants to comment, and publishing that information along with their comments? I don’t know, but something has to give, and soon. Children are growing up now with a sense that they can say whatever they want, whenever they want, and suffer no consequences.
What happened to the consequences of saying something stupid, or acting like a jerk in public?
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Tags: anonymous commenting, comments, H1N1, morals, shame, swine flu, twitter, values
Categories : general nuggets, rants