Dawn Wells, the actress who played ‘Mary Ann’ on Gilligan’s Island, was sentenced February 29th 2008, to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation in Idaho after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving. The guilty plea came as part of an agreement with prosecutors in which three misdemeanor counts - driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) stemming from an October 18th traffic stop - were dropped.
I just returned from dropping Ben off at the high school. I got him out of bed at 4 a.m. and with a little bit of last minute packing (which included remembering his watch and billfold at the last possible second) we got him to the bus before it left at 4:30. I told him to be sure to call his Mom at least once a day, to stay with the group, be good, etc. etc. etc.
I hope they win but more importantly I hope they have fun. Fun beats winning every time in my book.
MjL 13 Mar 2008, 5:00 a.m.
I have some very mixed feelings about this kind of Big Brotherism. I don’t see how we can maintain Freedom of Speech if we are going to criminalize online behavior. I haven’t read the law and perhaps it is very specific in detailing what is or is not criminal. I agree people should be civil to each other but I’m not sure to that you can legislate it.
I see this not so much as Big Brotherism or a Freedom of Speech issue, (but will admit that maybe I should), but as a civility issue.
Firstly, this is another example of how our children are not living in the same world we grew up in and I had never given any thought to the possibilities of the use of texting, IM’ing, Chatting or other on line communications being used in a negative let alone threatening manner. I don’t have a Facebook or MySpace page but I do read a couple of forums that are family friendly, yet the occasional dust-up occurs among adults that gets out of hand, so I have no excuse for it not occurring to me.
And B, I begin to see that this technology can be a HUGE factor in socialization problems for the schools. As I think about this, (aside from the sharp pains shooting through my brain from the effort), I am rather over-whelmed by the possibilities for trashing of individuals in the school community that could be incredibly hurtful to weaker individuals. And wouldn’t most teenagers fall into this category? It goes infinitely beyond what we experienced of the cruelty of children when we went to school.
I am imagining a connect between this issue and school shootings. The more I think about this and the effects it may be having on our children, (mine are grown but I how have a granddaughter to think about), the scarier it is.
Lastly, I would think there has to be some age parameters for thes laws to deal with your concerns of Big Brotherism and Freedom of Speech issues.
Michael T. 13 Mar 2008, 10:50 a.m.
When you consider that many web sites allow anonymous posting (such as mine) it places a huge responsibility not upon the person posting but upon the owner of web site. I don’t think I want to play web police but this new law will force me to.
So - if somebody calls me fat and old - can I have that person thrown in jail? Even though the accusation is true it could also be construed as hurtful. Add the age limitation. Can calling an adolescent with acne “pimple-face” have one put in jail? How fat before “fatso” applies? And what if I call an anorexic fatso? That is obviously not true so can it be an insult? Eventually you come to a place where an insult is whatever is taken as an insult and I don’t want to be in that place when you add the threat of Big Brother throwing you in jail.
Most important to me, so long as the web is free and open these things are liable to happen and probably will. I would suggest people adapt rather than try to adapt this new frontier to old social structures.
MjL 13 Mar 2008, 11:23 a.m.
I may have mis-construed, in my first comment, that we were on different sides of this issue, (is that a proper use of construed?), we are not. I agree with everything you have written, it is indeed a, (let’s see if I can do this right this time, thanks for the repair), VERY slippery slope to try to traverse. As far as anonymous boards and websites I don’t see much to worry about. But these MySpace and Facebook sites where adolescents probably know one another and see each other at school, I can see trouble that has to be dealt with and it is not or should not be for the schools to deal with.
As you can see, I have no answers but I now see some problems that I had not seen before.
Michael T. 13 Mar 2008, 12:23 p.m.
No Fear good friend - I had no doubt we are both on the “right” side of the issue. At least in our concern for cause, effect and outcome. It is indeed a bad situation when children are bullied or shamed. The problem is easy to see and the remedy may always be just beyond our grasp. I think ultimately it will require the vigilance of caring parents to police the matter rather than some government bureau or school agency.
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