Accountability

Like many, I have witnessed the increasing spewing of ignorance and hatred on the web. It prompted me to ask one question: Is there any sense of accountability anymore? Unfortunately, some people feel that just because their words travel through a series of wires and circuits that it doesn't affect the person on the other side of the internet, but it does. They feel that the person they become on the web is imaginary--an extra in a vast land of make believe. In actuality, it's often a very real mask they wear in order to obscure who they really are, not knowing that the facade they present is closer to the real them then they care to admit. Aren't we all a little more like ourselves when nobody's watching--or when we think they aren't? We need to wake up and remember that just because we have the freedom of speech, it doesn't mean it should be abused or used for the sole purpose of harming others. To do so is an insult to the many people who died to grant us this privilege and detrimental to the goal they had in mind for the future. People feel they can say anything without consequences and blind themselves to the potential damage they're causing. It's so easy to forget that there are human beings on the receiving end of our words. For us not to respect that and act accordingly is an injustice not only to them, but to ourselves since what we do often comes back to us.