Soapbox moment? - the road we're headed down.

As with my last post, I want to talk about an article i read recently.  This article discussed the case of a professor being the victim of "content without context" where he was videoed saying some very one sided things, without being shown the entire conversation

My mind went for some reason to this video from 2007:

This shortened version of the incident doesn't show the part where he refuses to give up the mike and becomes difficult to deal with.  We're approaching at a break neck speed a decision as a society.  We can either welcome this infusion of technology, or we can use it to further the paranoid "Everyone's out to get me" mentality so many people have.

Or we can stand up and face the issue head on.

The world can be a scary place.  Sometimes facts get messed up and people get it wrong.  So here are some facts.

Fact 1.
These exist

bulletproof backpacks.  My heart goes out to everyone who's been affected by the high amount of school based shootings and I can't imagine how it must feel.  However, this is going too far.  Sending your son or daughter to school with this instantly puts them on guard.  Sure, maybe you want them to be, but instead of investing $300+ on this backpack, why not teach your kids how to make friends and to keep an eye on those who need help?

Do we really want this kind of teacher?

Fact 2.

Schools are ramping up their preparedness.  I recently had a conversation with my aunt (Who is an elementary school teacher) she was telling me all about how they were basically giving the teachers S.W.A.T. training and subjecting them all Columbine shooting re-enactments.  

With schools stepping it up to be ready in the case something bad happens.  How can we let ourselves be blinded by only getting half the picture?  Cases like the one in the original article show that in order to understand something for what it really is you have to know exactly what's going on.  Everyone mentions how so many of the people in these shootings are mentally I'll however, i don't hear about any new legislation designed to look at this issue.  Instead we are all subjected to the dead horse that is gun control.

Fact 3.

This article here honestly shocked me, so instead of talking about it too much, I recommend you read it.  Or at least skip down the list towards the bottom.

We can't allow ourselves to get blinded by the sensational comments and actions of those are trying to make us feel scared.  the initial article brings up an issue that I think is an underlying cause of a lot of the issues we face today and will continue to face tomorrow.  If we can't take it upon ourselves to get the full picture, we're going to be blind sided by something so terrible we can't recover from it.  It's a problem we can't ignore,  things are only going to get worse, we need as close to perfect information as we can get so that we can figure out how to act.  hiding behind a bulletproof backpack isn't going to do us much good if we can't identify and combat the true cause.

'

Stepping off my soapbox now,

Cam.