October 9, 2016

­­I normally don’t like to air grievances online; this isn’t Festivus, after all (Seinfeld joke for comic relief). But lately, I’ve seen such upsetting material on my social media feed and in the news, and I find myself not only deeply affected by it but also needing to make sense of it, and as the title of this blog indicates, I tend to do that with my words. So here goes.

I’m a teacher, and through the experiences of my students, I’ve seen the damage that words can inflict on them, particularly words shared online. For one reason or another, people seem to be less afraid of being aggressive and offensive when they can do it from behind a screen. And those on the receiving end of those posts have the ability to continually reread them or be reminded of them when new comments or ‘likes’ prompt notifications. In an ever more digitally connected society, online citizenship is something my school is working to promote, as are most schools. So when I see some of the material my adult social media contacts are posting, I can’t help but get upset, both by the way the posts hit me personally and by the online behavior that’s being modeled to younger generations.

This political race is one that has brought out the worst in many of us; I think there are many reasons for that, and they are too numerous and complex to get into in one simple blog post. We've reached a point at which we seem no longer able to disagree with one another without blatantly disrespecting each other's humanity. In case anyone thinks I'm being hypersensitive or melodramatic in this statement, let me share the few examples of online content I’ve seen in the last few days, the content that has become too much for me to bear without speaking about it, the content that has prompted this blog post. 

First, there was a widely-circulated meme that said, “Honk for Trump. Drive into a tree for Hillary.” Another read, “Black Lives Matter protest scheduled tonight in Ft. Lauderdale!” (this was the day that Hurricane Matthew hit Florida). Okay, I get it, these are memes meant to be "jokes" (and let’s be honest, they’re tame in comparison to some others I’ve encountered elsewhere on Facebook, t-shirts, or even the mouths of some of my acquaintances), but these posts are literally calling for the deaths of people who disagree with the viewpoints of the posters. And it doesn’t stop there. In the comments section of several news stories from the last few weeks, I read the words of a fellow Catholic who passed the judgement that Hillary Clinton ought to “rot in hell.” I read fellow Husker fans’ messages that Michael Rose-Ivey ought to be lynched in front of the American flag for kneeling during the anthem. And of course, there are numerous defenses of the recently-leaked sexually-aggressive comments made by one of the presidential candidates. And I could go on. How is it possible that we have become so desensitized to words that disrespect the lives of our fellow human beings?

The purpose of this post is not to sway my readers’ political affiliations or opinions of the presidential candidates; I hesitated to even mention their names for that reason, for I fear that if I were to try to advance my particular political stance, I might turn people off from taking the time to read this and consider the message. I simply want to point out the kind of hateful and aggressive rhetoric that has somehow become normalized, legitimized, justified--especially online. I’m not calling on you to abandon your deep-seated political views. I’m not calling on you to agree with mine. Heck, I’m not even calling on you to listen to mine. I’m simply advocating that we all put a little more consideration into treating one another with basic human decency, in all forums, but most especially online. The Internet leaves a permanent record of our behavior, and there are so many impressionable young people out there who are following our lead. Let’s live up to that responsibility.