A Marine SSgt sent a Twitter post wherein he boasts that he’s qualifying on the rifle range and "shooting black all day, just like George Zimmerman.” A young man is dead and another man caused that death and has been arrested. The accusations of racial motivation are pervasive; however, the details of what happened to cause that death are, at this time, undetermined. To suggest that the young man’s death was a deliberate action of aiming for “the black,” as if the victim had a target pinned to his body, is so wrong on so many levels that there is no defense for the Marine’s thought, but especially for putting that thought into words and then sharing those words with others.
I staunchly defend a person’s right to freedom of speech, but this is an abuse of that freedom and goes way beyond a simple error in judgment. The Marine may be a good shot on the rifle range, but he shot his mouth off at the wrong time, in the wrong way, and with a message that is so wrong it's hard to believe he did this. There is no taking back what's already done, but each of us is accountable for both our actions and our words, and this Marine needs to be held accountable.
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I've learned to use Twitter as a way to get breaking news (mostly sports or local) or entertainment (funny fake sports news) and avoid using it to provide commentary. There are too many people spouting off about anything without thinking of how much harm they might cause. On Ash Wednesday, a TV sports personality was blasted all over Twitter for looking "like an idiot" and even accused of beating his wife. That's a form of defamation based on someone's religion. You make not like it, but that's how I choose to practice and it is a centuries-old custom.
Twitter has the potential to make people look as dumb (or dumber) than they really are. Today, I saw a tweet from baseball player Jose Canseco. He said he'd like to host Saturday Night Live and would donate his pay to Greenpeace; did anyone know how to contact Lorne Greene? LOL! Try a seance, Jose.
The bottom line is that most people don't care what you have to say, until it's something bad or embarrassing. Then you can't ever get rid of it.
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