When I was in school, children prodded at each other with sticks, threw insults across the playground and shared mean notes and drawings.
However, because the Internet wasn”t so prominent then, the childish disrespect usually stopped at the boundaries of the school or town.
Now people create Facebook pages, Web sites and Twitter accounts just to insult others. Many of these people are adults.
Though my Facebook page is not a perfect model, I use it to keep in contact with my friends. I say what I think. I post photos and links. But every time I post anything, I think how it would affect my friends, whether a statement or photo would offend or if it”s something I want to share with all the people on my friends list.
I believe in the freedom of speech. But I also believe in respectful communication.
I choose to use the freedom of speech to say what I think at work and while off the job.
The problem is some people are using their freedom of speech to throw stones across the Internet, disrespecting people for such core issues as religion.
“Pakistan”s government ordered Internet service providers to block Facebook on Wednesday amid anger over a page that encourages users to post images of Islam”s Prophet Muhammad,” the Associated Press reported.
“The page on the social networking site has generated criticism in Pakistan and elsewhere because Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. The government took action after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court order Wednesday requiring officials to block Facebook until May 31.
“The Facebook page at the center of the dispute ? ?Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” ? encourages users to post images of the prophet on May 20 to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of “South Park” for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.”
So it”s likely that fans of the page aren”t Muslim and it”s their right to freedom of expression to draw and say what they like, but that doesn”t make it OK.
While studying ethics at Chico State University, I found I identified most with the virtue theory. In virtue theory, good nature wins against rule-based moral theories because one ought to do something because he or she believes it is good, not because the action or inaction follows a rule.
As my professor Aaron Quinn wrote, “Virtue ethics emphasizes character before consequences, requires the ?good” prior to the ?right,” and allows for agent-relative as well as agent-neutral values.”
Yet, the Facebook page users seem to believe in the rule, two wrongs make a right.
“?We are not trying to slander the average Muslim,” said the information section of the Facebook page, which was still accessible Wednesday morning. ?We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we”re not afraid of them. That they can”t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence,”” according to the article.
Threats and violent protests also stemmed from cartoons of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper in 2005.
So a Danish newspaper disrespects Muslims, some Muslims riot and make threats and “South Park” disrespects Muslims again, continuing the cycle.
Both proponents of drawing the prophet and Muslims who made threats crossed the line. They chose to follow the rules of their religion or government rights, but they didn”t think about what was good.
I say stop the cycle, choose virtues over rules, and two wrongs ? or 20 ? don”t make a right.
Katy Sweeny is a staff reporter for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at kdsweeny@gmail.com or 263-5635, ext. 37.
