Facebook is so Frustrating!

I go to Facebook because it keeps me connected with a number of people I really care about and I want to know what’s going on in their lives. There are also some old acquaintances with whom I’m able to renew connections. It’s fun when I can hear about their trip to Cuba or about a new recipe they tried out last night. When it gets into facts, politics, history and general opinions, I get pretty shaky about staying connected. Facebook is not the place to try to learn anything factual. Keep it light and keep it friendly; and as my old-lady used to say: “Don’t talk about politics or religion.” So here’s a few things that I didn't say on Facebook that I really need to get out.”
by Charlie Leck

Facebook is a lot like the guys who sat around in my old man’s luncheonette when I was a kid. We lived in a small, rural community and our place was a gathering spot for a lot of guys who didn’t really know what to do with their days. These guys would piss and moan about this and that. Some of them thought that old Harry Truman was a damned straight guy and some others thought he was one of the biggest losers and crooks ever to reside in the White House. Either way, these old fellows could say anything they wanted and they weren’t going to be hung by their scrotums if they were wrong.

I heard some of the most fantastic things from those old geezers as they sat around the big coal stove in the middle of the store on a chilly Saturday morning. A fellow could say almost anything he wanted and nobody would call him on it even if it was a little bit whacky. I guess it was part of their friendly code of politeness and acceptance.

That’s what happens on Facebook, too! It’s why I’ve tried to escape it a couple of times. I’ll get so incredibly upset at some utterly stupid remark that I about want to blow my top off. But there seems to be a Facebook code of politeness and acceptance. I’d almost go along with it if some of these whacko things weren’t said as if they Holy Scripture

Just the other day some gal named Emmie said this on the page of one of my dear Facebook friends:

“Obama is a Disgrace [sic] to our American country… we should not be apologizing to this country for anything, especially for their dead people, we have plenty of our own people that died because of them… Obama makes me so sick… vomiting…”

Naturally I had to fire back in anger in order to tell Emmie that the President did not apologize for anything to the Japanese and he had made it clear before he went that he was not going to do any apologizing. I doubt that Emmie ever picks up a copy of the NY Times even though it’s readily available in her town.

In the same column of replies was another by a fellow named Edward…

“I consider Barack Hussein Obama the worst president ever, a traitor, created a huge racial division among Americans. Obama’s policies and his administration sunk the U.S. under an unpayable debt, goes around the world apologizing against America.”

I didn’t fire back in response to this comment because Edward seems a bit shaky and uninformed and I didn’t believe if would do any good. If I did reply I’d tell Edward what I told Emmie. The President did no apologizing. None. Not one little drop of it! And, I’d remind Edward that our nation was on the brink of financial collapse when Obama took over from George W. Bush. The bank and housing crisis was very dangerous. Obama pulled us out of it and over the next 6 years strengthened our economy to a degree that it has not seen in a long, long time. And, our national debt is at a lower rate than it has been since the presidency of William Clinton (another Democrat who had a financial mess to clean up). Obama also inherited a crazy war in Iraq (a war that most rational people now admit should never have been fought – a war that cost our nation over three trillion dollars).

Then I would have told them both to at least try to know – a little bit – some of the facts so they can speak a bit more intelligently.

But, on Facebook we do not hold people accountable for what they say; nor do we demand that they supply facts to back up what they’re saying – just like they were sitting around the coal stove in my old man’s luncheonette.

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