Look, I get it, Facebook is a part of our world now; it links people from around the globe and helps bring people closer together. That is, when it doesn’t resemble a bathroom wall filled with scrawled screeds from people who really haven’t considered all the sides of an issue – or, at a bare minimum, two.
I suppose I shouldn’t lay it all at Facebook’s feet. Long before Facebook, threads would appear in my email proclaiming the latest “news” that I really needed to know about. Remember that one? You probably received it in the late ’90s:
Beware of cars driving down two-lane highways with there (sic) lights off. They’re filled with gang members who will shoot you when you flash your lights to gently remind them that they’re (sic) lights are off.Total BS, but it still got passed around. More recent events brought to mind another meme inspired by an all-too-real and tragic event.
Dear God, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools?According to this gem of logic, a god that is so omnipotent that she may defy the laws of nature at will gets stopped dead in her tracks by a non-existent law. (Kids are allowed to pray in school, schools are not allowed to mandate prayer.)
–[signed by a concerned student]
Dear Concerned Student, I’m not allowed in schools.
–God
Beyond that lapse in logic, there’s the complete absence of strategic, long-range thinking. Recently, a mass shooting was perpetrated in a church. I’m pretty sure God or gods are allowed there. Having served mass in the Catholic Church for a few years, I can attest that that is pretty much all that’s allowed. But I fear that my rant misses the point of this current season, and I must address that. Because this is the season of....
Football!!! That’s right, America’s Sport – big, expensive, violent, professional football practically screams “America!” And when that’s not enough, the U.S. Air Force is happy to provide a flight of F-15’s to scream overhead. This season has seen another, quieter message emanating from the field – the silent knee.
Some people take issue with this. Some people use it to score political points. And a counter-protest has emerged on Facebook: “I Stand.” It has appeared in my news feed usually accompanied by the dress-blues photo of a fellow Marine with whom I served. And it irks me.
I stood. I was 17 and not particularly patriotic, but I stood and took an oath to defend this nation and its Constitution, which guarantees the right to protest. And I’m still standing.
| Copyright © 2017 by James Knudsen |
Well said James, most of these assholes have never served a day in their life while others try to make out like they are the only ones who have served. I never heard anyone say, "Don't worry about the guy next to you; you're fighting for God & Country."
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