Instrument of Destruction

The release of Thoughts of a Fried Chicken Watermelon Woman has been delayed for a week. It is available for purchase on Amazon Kindle.

Adam B., a Daily Kos member, wrote a great piece April 29th titled Defendant’s rights, victims’ rights and the worst of crimes. In it, Adam describes the horrific crime of child sexual abuse in order to produce pornography and the subsequent case against one of the possessors of said pornography. In the article, Adam summarizes what Congress has to say about those who possess child pornography, the effect on the abused individual and finally, what the Supreme Court ruled on the case last week. It’s a very informative piece and hopefully many will take the time to read it.

Of the many issues addressed in Adam’s piece is the fact that once again, the Internet is being used to do irreparable damage to a person.

The Internet is surely one of the greatest inventions of all times. Utilizing the web has made it easier to do research, made communication easier and faster, created a new economy and job market and opened up to the world to those of us who are unable to travel it. The Internet has been used to give voice to those previously unheard and opened up national debates and issues to many who would otherwise be ignored. There is a great exchange of information and ideas that heretofore would have been ignored. And I owe personally owe the Internet for the platform it’s given me for my blog and subsequent book.

With all the wonderful things that can be attributed to the Internet, it’s a shame that the Internet has and continues to be used to victimize innocent people everywhere. The young lady in the Adam B. piece is one of those victims.

The young lady was sexually abused as a child by her uncle to produce pornography. The young lady was just beginning to gain control over her life when she learned her images were being trafficked on the Internet. This victimization will last for the remainder of this woman’s life. She will live under a cloud always wondering if she is being recognized because of those images. She will never know the pleasure of just being. This victimization is being perpetrated by people she doesn’t know and there will be an end to it. Unfortunately there is no way Congress, the appellate court or the Supreme Court can do to end her suffering or the suffering of other men and women who are similarly victimized.

In addition to this form of persecution, the Internet is used to keep people from getting jobs or made it easier for companies to remove employees from their jobs.

One of the way companies use to discriminate is to troll the Internet for people’s Facebook pages. They look at what’s posted and judge potential employees based on what they see although much of what they see is out of context. Is it really fair to deny someone employment because they’re drinking at a party. Isn’t drinking one of the things most of us do at a party? Are we no longer able to have fun at a party for fear that a potential employer is going to see us having fun? Is having a good time fitting criteria for employment? Or is it another way to keep people from getting ahead in an already unforgiving economy? If that’s the case, the only people who qualify for employment are Mormons and the Amish.

When not using Facebook to discriminate against an applicant, the Internet is being used to fire people for enjoying themselves during their non-work time. A Georgia teacher was forced to resign from her job because a supposed concerned parent saw her with a glass of beer and reported her to the administration. The teacher was on vacation in Europe and visiting a pub. The teacher was not drinking she was merely holding a glass of the ale. How can anyone be discriminated against for activities participated in while on vacation, especially lawful activities? Have we become so myopic that we’ve lost all modicum of common sense?

I would imagine Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Calliau, the acknowledged inventors of the World Wide Web and Robert E. Kahn and Vint Cerf, the acknowledged inventors of the Internet had any of this type of criminal and discriminative behavior in mind. I believe they were thinking of what a wonderful gift to this world these inventions would be. It’s a shame that once again, like Zyklon B an insecticide that was ultimately used to execute millions in gas chambers during the Holocaust, something that was created for good has been exploited for discrimination and used for evil.

Will we ever learn?