Internet......sigh.....

Some friends were recently on an episode of Wife Swap. Sufficed to say that ABC has an agenda when they edit the material for the show and my friends did not come out on the upside of this agenda. I knew this going in because I too have some ideas that are somewhat "counter cultural" and have had complete strangers ask me the the darnedest things; "Is home schooling legal?" - would I tell you if it wasn't? Or my personal favorite: "Are all those kids yours? By the same husband?" - if I throw this bone, will you go away?

Anyway, little did I know, ABC has message boards for all these shows, and the virulent attacks on my friends are astounding. I wonder if, brought face to face, these people would have the courage to say the same things to my friends. A lot of the posts are calling for the authorities to intervene. These are the same people who would drive by a homeless person, not bother to vote, and ignore the neighbor next door who's struggling with something. Yet behind the wonderful anonymity of the internet, we can call each other names and accuse each other of egregious things and walk away without consequence. Worst of all, I fell into it myself. I started by merely defending my friends and then started to point out flaws in the other family. We're making judgments about people and the futures of the their children all based on 44 minutes of their lives picked by ABC. We have a multitude of ways to communicate, we are invited to voice our opinions more than ever before, we have opportunities to be heard and all we can do is digress into snipping at each other like a bunch of ....well, idiots. I apologize for my part and hope I can act with more grace and mercy tomorrow.