bierkergaard

When I worked with urban youth almost three decades ago, there was a retaliatory retort that the kids used to warn others of impending escalation if the offending party didn't back off: "Get Out Of My Grill."   Translation: Get out of my face...I suppose it comes from getting too close to a car's chassis or something automotive or it could be dental as in teeth (grill is the teeth, particularly if the teeth are adorned with shiny metallic materials). Rappers sometimes have a mouth of precious metals on their front teeth. YEAH, BOY! The last week's tumult arising out of the Charlottesville, Virginia marches by neo-Nazis, Fascist, Confederate lovers to one degree or another, and the counter-protesters, were up in the nation's grill. Social Media sparked outrage on all sides. I have continued to Unfollow people this week. I don't have time to deal with apologists for the Southern Rebellion. Also, if there is one group that is easy to disdain openly, outs...

A few days, I had to take the unusual step of "Unfriending" someone on Facebook. I typically just "Unfollow" someone if their posts become inane, rude, or mildly offensive. Or boundary-crossing, where a person has a proclivity of posting an issue that they have with another person they know in real life repetitively online. I typically let the person know that their posts are making me uncomfortable because it starts to seem like they want people to make a choice and render a decision about innocence and guilt, with them being the offended party. Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Maybe it is too complicated to post on FB  and profoundly unhelpful. Most, not all such conflict, is truly black and white, right vs. wrong. We are all-biased in our favor. It can also be when  a person is overly smarmy about another person and uses FB to communicate the message in a public forum. Save that for non-public communication * i.e. husband  to wife, wife to husband, pa...