I am angry today, very angry. I spent quite a bit of time last night reading comments people left in the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle in response to the article about proposed suicide barriers on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Comments ranged from "just let them jump" to "why not install a diving board in the middle of the bridge?" to " We should not try to discourage suicide but actually encourage it so that the dregs of society can take themselves out of the gene pool."
No, I did not jump into that verbal slug fest. My husband did. He has a thicker skin than I do and can handle those kinds of hateful, hurtful, heartless comments better.
I will, however write to the editor to express my displeasure over their policy of obviously publishing comments without any kind of editing. Not that it'll make any difference.
I've noticed this kind of thing in that newspaper before - people writing in seem to take great pride in being heartless, unkind and uncaring and I don't think they even realize what they are saying. How can you tell a parent that doctors shouldn't do all they can to try and save their baby's life and spend the money on something else? How can you tell a person that their loved one was the "dregs of society" and "deserved to die?" "Good riddance." Do these people ever stop to listen to themselves?
I wonder if San Francisco is trying for the title of most heartless, unkind, uncaring city. If they are, they are well on their way.
2 comments:
I don't think SF is alone. All newspapers I know who have comments allow those kinds of comments as long as they don't target specific individuals. There are always mean people. It's our job to try to keep the country out of their hands.
You're right, Marilee. It's not just SF, that just happens to be what I read mostly.
And how exactly are we going to keep the country out of their hands?
BTW, I found an article in Times Magazine that confirms what I said.
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