Rant #2,205: Think

My family and I had a decent weekend this one past.

We went to the New York Yankees/Toronto Blue Jays game at Yankee Stadium, saw the Yankees win, and after a busy Saturday, basically crashed on Sunday ... well, except for our son, who worked that day.

Anyway, some things happened during the past week on social media that demonstrate that people are just so betwixt and between on vehicles like Facebook that they simply have forgotten how to think.

And each incident happened between myself and people who I grew up, people I knew in my old neighborhood in Queens, and demonstrated that really, people should cool down, count to 10, and chill out.

One of the incidents involved a guy that I knew, way back when, not as really a true friend, but as an acquaintance more than anything else.

He was a nice person, he was a year older than me, I believe, and our paths crossed many times in the old neighborhood, between Cub Scouts and the Rochdale Village Athletic League, our community's Little League.

Anyway, this person has had a hard go of it recently. I believe that one of his sons was involved in a serious motorcycle accident, and he is on the long road to recovery after a period where the family did not know if he would make it, period.

Another son's life apparently unraveled because of drugs and lifestyle, and he didn't make it.

This obviously is a large load to bear for any person, and perhaps people's perceptions change when things like this happen to you, and happen to you so quickly.

I read about the travails of these two young men, and always gave words of encouragement to their father, who got such words from many other people too, not just me.

Anyway, to make a long story short, these incidents changed this person, from a nice person to speak to on Facebook from time to time, to a virulent anti-Semite and racist, drawing some of the most antagonistic, horrid posters to his own posts that I have ever seen.

If you think Archie Bunker could only be white, well, do I have news for you!

After these unfortunate incidents with his sons played out, this person who I grew up with all of a sudden changed.

His posts became increasingly pro-I am at a loss of words to say, maybe pro-African American, pro-black ... but those aren't the terms I want to convey, because what I just described are not necessarily bad things. I guess I should describe them as "pro-black, but anti-white and and anti-Semitic."

His posts decried the "fact" that the Jews today aren't the real Jews, that blacks should take back this country from whites, that Jews are the cause of all the world's ills.

I am kind of summarizing here, but those descriptions were the themes of his recent posts.

I took him to task for all of these, and the replies I received from those following him were repulsive, to say the least, anti-white and anti-Semitic to their very core.

To make a long story short, I wrote his a polite Facebook message telling him how I felt, and he replied that he was just bringing "the truth" out.

No, it was not the truth, it was more spreading hate than anything else, and I summarily dumped him as a Facebook friend.

His family situation changed him, and he directed his anger at his situation to whites and Jews.

Sorry, I cannot read stuff like this and just pass it by.

Another situation, less virulent but still idiotic in my estimation, is currently happening between myself and a girl that my sister was very, very friendly with when they were growing up and whose parents my parents were very friendly with way back when.

I recently reconnected with this lady after more than 40 years of occasionally wondering whatever happened to her. I discovered her through another childhood friend's posts, and it seems that the feeling was mutual to reconnect via Facebook.

She puts up posts every here and there that I read, sometimes I respond to, mainly posts about work and life and her children and grandchildren, stuff like that, nothing with nothing.

However, her posts against the president have grown in frequency, tone and anger lately.

She can post her opinion on Facebook any time she likes, and that is fine with me. That is her right to do, and like with the other fellow I just spoke about, you have every right to post just about anything you want on Facebook.

But people who read these things have every right to respond, and respond I did, but very slightly.

When she would put up these posts--which are totally out of character with her other posts--I basically asked her why she feels the way she does.

And I swear to you, my response was as simple as that, nothing more, nothing accusing, just that. Period.

Well, I did this on Friday, and I got an earful (or is it an eyeful?) on Friday night from her younger sister, a lady that honestly, I don't remember from the old neighborhood, If anything, she was a baby way back when, and my memory wasn't serving me as to who she was initially, but yes, her family was a big family, and she must literally be the youngest of the family, and I did not remember her.

She gave me the business about why I had the nerve to ask her sister such a question, who the heck did I think I was, the whole nine yards.

Again, I told her that her sister and I had just reconnected, I didn't think that anything I said was so terrible, but that people have forgotten how to be civil, have forgotten how to have a conversation, and take a difference of opinion as if it was a knock against someone's very life and heritage.

I even used the analogy of the Yankees and Mets; some people like myself are Yankees fans, some people are Mets fans. I have many friends that are Mets fans, including my in-laws. We poke each other at times, it is all done in fun, and nobody holds grudges about it, we simply move on.

Why can't it be that way when we are discussing politics? Why can't we simply agree to disagree and move on?

The actual person I reconnected with came back with more anger about my simple question, and after reading the posts, between her and her sister, I had had enough.

I gave them an out. I said that I will always have good memories of her, her family--she has at least two other sisters that I kind of remember, as well as a brother--and certainly of her parents, who were really good friends of my parents during the old days.

I said that if you feel the need to, please block me. If you want to throw all of that away over silliness, please go ahead and do so.

But I also said that if you put up posts, whatever the theme of the posts, you should expect positive and negative feedback to come your way, and you should just brush the negative feedback off and not take it so personally, as if I was knocking the very existence of your family.

I have not gone on Facebook today as of 4:42 a.m., which is is right now, so I don't know the outcome.

I remember when we were kids, on a hot, steamy summer evening, my friends and would congregate in the park by our apartment building and talk for hours about this, that and the other thing.

Sure, we knocked each other, but nobody ever took it beyond that.

We were still friends through and through, we laughed, we cursed each other out, and we moved on.

Some people cannot do that today, and that makes me sad.

People are so angry today that they will literally throw away decades-old friendships over utter nonsense.

These are just two recent incidents I have had on Facebook. There have been others, where I have blocked people, and people have blocked me.

I mean, people, let's think! Let's accept the fact that not everyone is going to agree with everybody on every topic, and let's not take it beyond that.

Think! It is the only way to go.