Does anyone remember the old Bizarro World comics? The ones where the earth was square and superman was frequently evil? Today I feel like I closed my eyes for a second and woke up there. The currency of the times seems to be information and how you can spin it. Instead of right and wrong we have whuffie – respect or standing with our peers – rooted in some strange “reality” that can change depending on your point of view.

We talked about stopping cyberbullying today throughout the blogosphere and I think it is an extremely important issue. But I think the only way to stop wrong from happening in cyberland is to fight it in the real world. If we don’t teach and especially MODEL ethics and values in our families and our classes then there is no chance of it not existing in blogs, in forums, in Second Life – wherever humanity can have a voice.

I am making a pledge to myself right here and now that I will try to the best of my knowledge to stay off bandwagons for any causes. I have opinions and I will voice them but if my sources of information are blogs, newspapers, and TV then I have decided that after this last week, I will not be able to trust all the information.

What I have seen this last week has taught me these things. The information that we value so much and that is so easy for us to access is slanted, cut into pieces to show a particular point of view. Government is more afraid of that slanted media than determined to do the right thing. People in large groups can listen to the loudest voice and take everyone else in their direction just by their sheer volume. Those same loud groups will ignore the long term costs to everyone in order to get what they want. Individuals will scream accountability when the word they are actually speaking is entitlement.

Mama is long gone and I am an adult, but I have the strongest urge to go back to being a kid and just pulling the covers over my head.

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
Through the slow parade of tears without crying
Now I want to understand
I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hiding
You must help me if you can
Doctor my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?

Jackson Browne

I believe we need to teach our kids to be accountable. We have to be accountable ourselves. I believe there is no shame in hard work, telling the truth, and admitting when you are wrong (which I AM much of the time!) I believe that there is no loss of power in being respectful to others and that one of the greatest gifts we can have is the ability to laugh at ourselves. I believe we should say we are sorry when we hurt someone, even when we didn’t mean to. I believe these things are true no matter what changes around us. I believe that we should judge others by the same standard we want to be judged by. I believe that no matter how hard we try we will never be perfect people but I believe we should keep working at it anyway.

I know this is a strange and confusing post but I can’t blog about the precipitating situation because of confidentiality issues. I’m just venting and very, very sad. I’m going to play Scarlett tonight and just decide to think about it tomorrow.