The Wild Vile Web

We, as a society, tend to delude ourselves into believing that we are civilized and with all our technology surrounding us we can build a better, brighter future. Then something ugly like this happens: Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech" (why I cancelled my ETech presentations). This makes me sick on so many different levels.

At the most basic level I have always enjoyed reading Creating Passionate Users and have harvested some wonderful ideas from Kathy. To the best of my knowledge there has never been a controversial post on their weblog. Her friendly way of writing has made me feel at home at the site.

That some sicko...and let's call a spade a spade...it is a sicko would write such vile content reminds me that our "civilization" is no shining beacon on the hilltop. We are still very much the base animals that first climbed down from the trees and began using crude tools.

In the United States we always hear people whine about their "rights." The right to wear offensive tee-shirts; the right offend people with shock artwork; the right to scare people on an airplane without any fear of being challenged. What I don't hear is anyone talking about "responsibility." And let there be no doubt that for every right allotted us there is an equal responsibility to exercise that right with care not to abuse it.

I am glad to see that at least one of the owners of "meankids.org" has apologized. I'm sure that no blogger can control what other people post in their comments section. We really can't turn off the comments section because it is the way we communicate with one another. The sad thing about this is that individuals like Rev. Ed have always been out in our community. In the old days they would just mutter their insane ravings to themselves. Now they can post them online for all to see.

I wish Kathy well. I hope she can overcome her fears, she has a lot of knowledge to share with us. I already knew it was a spooky world out there, and for me, it just got a little spookier.