current prevents

There has been substantial buzz over a Pennsylvania teacher who blogged (using her first name and last initial) about her students (not identified by name or even singled out) in an unflattering way. People found her blog and decided that anyone who is angry at students and airs the grievances shouldn't be in the classroom.

Now you may not know this, but I also have a blog. You should check it out some time. In addition to a blog, I happen to own some very strong feelings about things. The question is, do these lines I type cross any other lines? I think that the answer is a solid "maybe."

The frontier of communication is the blog. The individual can publicize his own crackpot, personal views to an audience potentially 200 billion people strong. All those angst ridden poems in a shoebox on the bottom of my closet can be "published" and every feeling that i would have written on a scrap of paper or in a journal hidden under my pillow now becomes public fodder. What a rush - to think that the random guy on the street might have read (and, dare I say, enjoyed?) something I wrote. Wow! So instead of locking away my most personal thoughts, or whispering them to my significant other during a quiet evening of bill paying or ignoring each other while we play on our respective BBerries, or even confiding in that close friend after one too many cases of good old Knickerbocker, I put them out there hoping that I can turn a phrase and tell a tale that is cautionary or amusing. I increase my chances of immortality by increasing the chances that someone can become aware of my brilliance by dint of a google search.

But Victor did not need to build his creature. When we have the urge to father children, we bear some of the responsibility for our children. When I sit at lunch with my house guests and friends and slam student A, there is always the chance that someone at the lunch table will tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on. Eventually, student A's parents hear what I said in my own house and I get called on it. Are they wrong? No -- they have a right to be offended that I would express myself in a certain way. Am I wrong? No, the feelings are normal (trust me...student A is such a yutz) and humans feel the need to commiserate and share ideas. It is no longer about who is right and who is wrong, but what are the consequences either way. We tell students to be careful with what they post not because there is anything "wrong" with what they say or post but because good intentions pave the road to hell, and often, righteous actions are the sidewalks.

Lacking common sense is not a crime. Having the kind of imaginative foresight which would preemptively account for any misuse, misinterpretation or other mistaken citation of personal ideas is nigh on impossible. And we shouldn't have to go back to an isolated state where we hide our thoughts for fear of someone's reacting poorly to them and crying "off with his head." So what is the middle ground between maintaining a purely private life and being constantly exposed to public scrutiny? Is it anonymous blogs on which we feel empowered to say whatever we want until someone figures out that any identity can be tracked online? Is it the virtual "hall pass" - a "time off" or a safe haven where anyone with access can say what he wants without fear of repercussion and anyone who reads anything signs a waiver against feeling offended? Good luck mandating emotions.

Till we figure it out, I let the bard advise..."Best safety lies in fear."