Humor Me
Today I decided…to get a sense of humor.
Not that I didn’t have one before, I even flatter myself with the idea that I’m occasionally funny, but what I’m referring to is more rigorously using humor to address situations and issues that would have otherwise filled me with seething anger or frustration. I don’t need any more stress in my life. And I’d like to live longer, if I can help it. We’ve all heard of ‘laughter is the best medicine’, and though current studies are reviewing the actual health benefits of humor and laughter, we can’t deny its uplifting effect.
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Nothing less
I just found out about Julia Campbell’s death from Theresa’s blog. She was a Peace Corps volunteer working in the Philippines for the past two years. She was set to go home in June but she went missing last April 8 and was found in a dry creek yesterday morning.
Is it weird and utterly pathetic to cry for a perfect stranger? Cause I did.
Like Theresa, I feel ashamed and angered. At the person/people who did this to her. At the unfairness of it all. A person drops everything she has ever known to help people she doesn’t know in a poor, and dangerous (that is pretty much established, no?) country, and this is what she gets.
She was a martyr.
I don’t know if I can be like her.
Sometimes, I feel guilty for wanting to be anything less.
Blogger’s Code of Conduct
Such was the magnitude of Kathy Sierra’s experience that I read about it in our daily paper a week or so ago. She received death threats and disturbing photographs from people who thought she was too optimistic. This raised a lot of concern about online harassment and what should be done about it. Bloggers like Tim O’Reilly suggested a Blogger’s Code of Conduct similar to the guidelines being implemented by Blogher.org as a means of preventing and dealing with cyber-bullying.
It’s rare for everyone to agree on anything so not surprisingly there is an ongoing debate in the blogosphere regarding this code of conduct, discussing censorship and freedom of speech among other points being brought up. Dave Taylor is one of the bloggers who explained why he wouldn’t support such a code.
I personally don’t believe in censorship but I do believe that people should be and should be made responsible for what they say. I think it’s a matter of applying “real life” laws into the online world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a good start, or even that lesson in kindergarten: an individual’s rights end where another’s begin.
