Just Let It Go...

Learning to navigate all of the protocols of the Facebook phenomena can be rather challenging if not totally daunting. I mean, it’s easy to comment on something or to someone who is truly your friend, but what about someone that you really don’t know all that well? Once again, it is easy if you agree with them, everyone likes to hear a, “way to go” or “I like that,” but what do you say if something they have posted is fraught with inaccuracy, rude or just plain wrong? This becomes even more of a problem, when you know that you hold a significant minority opinion among your “friends.”

It never ceases to amaze me when people use words like inclusive and diversity as their mantra, but then post articles that ridicule groups of people or individuals who disagree with their world view. It amazes me when I watch and listen to people as they throw around the phrase,”this should be banned!” I really worry that my friends haven’t paid attention in their history classes. Perhaps they were spending too much time twittering and facebooking. (is that a word?) Because, if they did pay attention, they would have learned that the first steps to dehumanizing someone or a group is to marginalize them, make fun of them, start spreading information about them that isn’t accurate, blame them for what is wrong with society and once you have an audience, call for boycotts and bans against them. If these people did study history, they would recognize that this was the same behavior used by the Nazis’ to justify the murder of six million Jews. I have frequently thought of this quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

In Germany they first came for the Communists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —

and by that time no one was left to speak up.

So what do I do? Comment and know that I will be thrown under the bus? Perhaps ask a few thought provoking questions and hope that they can recognize their own hypocrisy? Or, just let it go? For now, I think I will put my head down, keep my mouth shut, and just graduate. Then maybe some of these problems will take care of themselves.

Blessings