The Internet is a place many people go to get information. It’s where you expect to find facts and figures and details, but very often what you find is non-balanced opinion and spiteful commentary. Frequently, it becomes a gathering place for people with an agenda or a point of view or the careless and uncaring who spew mean-spirited attacks on others, regardless of the audience or their feelings.
A recent example was a news story out of Indiana about four young adults killed in a weather-related car accident. We won’t mention the families to protect them from further pain. The four were returning home after an evening business meeting and the toll-way was icy; the car slid across the median and collided with a semi, killing all four. It was a straightforward news account, but the comments section started with someone bad-mouthing the business opportunity in which the four were involved: Amway. Sprinkled in among the concerns for the pains of the families were more isolated comments about Amway and Amway meetings.
Whatever your opinions about Amway, the Amway opportunity, and Amway meetings, the story about the death of someone is not the place to voice them. Your freedom of speech is not the freedom to choose your place to speak out. Your right to free speech is not the right to speak freely without sensitivity to the feelings of others deeply affected by what you say. In this instance, what you think about Amway isn’t nearly as important as how those families felt about the loss of their sons and daughters. This isn’t about your rights, it’s about theirs. With freedom comes responsibility to act responsibly.
Recently, there was a call for change in politics in Washington – now there needs to be a call for change in discourse on the Internet. As one Christmas carol says, “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with ‘me’.”
