Consequences Of One’s Actions
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 12, 2008
When I look back through my blog, I realize that I have touched upon the subject of having to deal with the consequences of one's actions many times.
The first time was when I addressed the Jennifer Wilbanks story back in 2005 (she was the woman who disappeared a day before she was going to get married, then said she'd been kidnapped by a black man). Then I wrote about it again while telling a story about people asking for raises based on merit, then realizing it wasn't what they wanted.
The next time I wrote on it, I was talking about a stupid radio DJ who, on his program, threatened to rape another man's 4-year old daughter, while throwing out racial slurs. Then I wrote about people who believe they can say whatever they want to, yet still retain their privacy; please! And the last time I wrote about it, I was highlighting a week where many celebrities had done and said some stupid things, and wondered why people were angry with them.
It seems like there's no dearth of information when it comes to people doing stupid things, then wanting to blame someone else for their actions. A day after Barack Obama was elected president, a minor radio DJ in Florida went on the air in blackface, a day after making a crack about seeing a bunch of black people standing in line and fried chicken, and days later was wondering why everyone was calling him a racist. Another news station had its reporter ask Joe Biden on the air if Barack Obama was a marxist, then complained when their access to him and his events was denied afterwards.
Earlier today, a Texas University football player was expelled from his football team for posting an email message he'd received on his MySpace page. A couple of days ago a soldier was arrested in the city of Oswego, NY, for punching a college student who was happy that Obama had been elected president, and ended up knocking his head into a car and putting him in the hospital. He claims it was an accident; he will lose his career, and possibly go to jail for his stupidity.
I keep wondering when people will wake up and realize that they really can't just go around doing whatever they believe they can do and not be ready to deal with the consequences of doing it. Everyone knows that you don't take a hot tea kettle and stick your tongue on it, yet every day someone new is putting their foot in their mouths, or exhibiting some other kind of bad behavior.
Unfortunately, Citibank was incorrect; a major faux pas can't be saved with a "thank you". Reputations can be ruined by a moment of idiocy. No America, the world really isn't equal, even with Barack Obama becoming president. No, you can't go outside in blackface. No, you can't pull out your old watermelon jokes. No people, you can't slur gay people or heavy people or the disabled. You can't pull out your old Polish jokes, and it's not helping that you've changed them to Russian or French or Irish jokes either. You don't get to leave your kid in the car in dire heat and say "sorry". You don't get to say "I can see Alaska from my house" then cry that no one is taking you seriously. You don't get to crawl over the fence into someone's back yard, take a picture, and claim freedom of the press.
Not without consequences. If you don't care, then live up to it and move on. But if people don't like it, don't act surprised. Just hope it wasn't overly stupid, and move on with your life. Sometimes you get a second chance. Then again, anyone heard from Michael Richards lately?
I think people think things said on the internet are more private than they really are, in terms of posting messages on Facebook or Myspace profiles. Anything on the internet, sadly even emails, can go from private to public with a simple click of the forwarding button or copy controls. Some people really should just imagine saying what they are about to post in front of a group of thousands of people. Because that could be the size of the audience that ultimately finds their comment.
~ Kristi
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Great point Kristi, if people just thought about things a bit more before they did them, there wouldn’t be as much back tracking, thereby fewer reasons to worry about either apologizing or ruining a reputation.
You could almost say that every action has a reaction and therefore you should be more careful before taking any action, so whether it’s drink driving or putting your foot in your mouth, think first and then take the appropriate action, which on may occasions is no action at all.
On and aside, that font color is a whole lot better.
Sire´s last blog post..Wassup’s Bloggers Forum Adding To The Blogging Experience
Glad the font color works, and I fully agree on those other actions, although I’m of the opinion that those who know they drink need to take appropriate actions before they drink so they’re not driving later on, and if their friends were really friends they’d make sure a drunk wasn’t on the road to begin with.
We actually have a service here where if you’ve had a few to drink you can call a service that will drive you while your car is driven home. I’m sure you guys have the same sort of service?
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We have some services like that, though not as organized, but locally ours just failed because not enough people used it. And that’s too bad.
And its probably not because your locals do not drink. So one must assume that they slept in their cars, stayed over if at friends or drove home drunk, thereby putting everyone else at risk. The problem is if they do it once and make it home in one piece they are more likely to do it again, an perhaps the next time they may not be so lucky.
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I don’t know why these programs fail, because if you ask me, they’re quite important. Probably it’s because they’re all volunteer, and that’s dying out as the economy is faltering.
The one I was talking about wasn’t volunteer, you had to pay for the service. Heck if people won’t do it if it’s free that service may well be short lived.
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True, and it’s a shame. However, my thought is that it’s not marketed properly. Instead of making deals with individuals, they should be trying to make deals with bars themselves.
That’s true. This one was advertised on TV and stuff, but the problem is that when you are drunk you don’t think straight anyway. Maybe they should make cars with inbuilt breath allizers
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They do, Sire. Not all cars, but one can have them installed. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it already.
I have Mitch, but what I meant to say is that every car should have them installed, no ifs or buts.
Sire´s last blog post..Blogging! It’s All About Presentation
Ah, I see. Meanwhile, I wonder why every one of your posts ends up with my having to moderate it. I’d best go check my settings.