One of my facebook friends posted something yesterday that I thought was no big deal and pretty amusing. As I read through the thread, I became AMAZED at some of the responses and personal attacks that started from what I considered a somewhat run of the mill post.
My friends are a very diverse group of people, and many, many of them are friends from high school. I spent 7th through 11th grade in an American High School in Germany because my father was working for the US Government. Then we transferred to a much smaller post in Utah for my senior year. Thanks to FB I have reconnected with many of them and I love to "talk" to them and hear from them. I would think most of my friends, many of whom were military brats, would be pretty open minded....but apparently when some of them came home and settled in one place or another they became extremely intolerant of others.
My friends post was a simple observation....she saw a group of Asian men, all in blue suits, with thier Murses (man purse, and Murse was my word, not hers) touring her local Walmart and wondered why it was on the itinerary. There were several funny responses. MY first thought was that Walmart is an extremely successful enterprise, that caters to ALL levels of society, and therefore a place that a group of business people might like to tour and get ideas.
What amazed me was that the amusing comments were taken the wrong way by several people and someone actually called someone else a Commie/Pinko/Bitch....Really? Did we just fall back into the '50s? I mean come on folks....everyone has different views in this country. Some are liberal, some conservative, some hate Obama, some like him, some people hate the government all together and believe they are "Soveriegn Citizens." (I met alot of these Soveriegn Citizens when I worked for a governement agency that they hate more than most of the other government agencies.)
As I said, my FB friends are a diverse group....and to be perfectly honest.....I do not care what their religious or political views are......I am tolerant.....I do not condemn anyone for their beliefs. I do not usually share my political or religious beliefs on FB because I don't feel I need to. I was raised in the Catholic Church but I am no longer a practicing Catholic, although I can still attend Mass and make all the appropriate responses. I believe in a higher power, I choose to call that higher power God. I may mention God occassionally in a post. However, I was always a "trouble making Catholic, with alot of questions about the Church's rules and beliefs." I have no problem with other people who believe in a different higher power. My political views are usually pretty liberal, and I pretty much refuse to talk about politics with anyone....particularly my conservative, redneck husband. And yes, I probably will have to pry the gun from his cold dead hands.....He rants and raves and vents and I bite my tongue until I eventually say..."ok enough, I will not respond just so you can pick a fight with me."
When I see religious or political retoric on FB I usually just scroll right past it. I do not get involved. But when something that I consider a simple observation becomes a political attack, a racists attack, or a personal attack on others, it bothers me. And when someone makes an amusing comment that gets twisted by other people, it bothers me.
I don't want to "unfriend" people because of their political or religious views, I will not comment on posts by Haters. And I have a few friends who spend waaaay to much time posting their religous and political views trying to insitgate HATE, it can take a long time to scroll past their MULTIPLE posts. Then there are the friends who post positive, inspirational quotes, stories, and pictures, these are POSITIVE messages, not NEGATIVE. But on both sides of this coin, these people are like me in one way or another, cat/dog/animal lovers, they grow great gardens, they enjoy some of the same activities, reading material, or sports that I do. So please folks, just play nice on FB, don't allow your own personal views to cloud your judgement and think it gives you the right to attack other people who don't agree with you. And if you are one of the people who posts HATE on FB, please stop, find another forum to spew your HATE! And think about this folks..... if you do not respond to their posts then they do not have a forum.......!
Have a Great DAY!
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