Be Kind

By Samantha DeRose

Well, this has been an eventful week that I don't have enough time to go into, but to say the very least, I've seen violence and hatred to the nth degree...enough to make one question if goodness will ever prevail in the human race.

One thing that I've been very vocal about is that the Internet seems to be a breeding ground for hatred.  I've had countless conversations with my own children and my students about being "kind" on the Internet.  Basically, don't post anything that you wouldn't want your parents, grandparents, future college admissions staff, future employers to see.  It's one thing to see kids screwing up on the Internet but it's a totally different ballgame when you see hateful, close-mindedness coming from adults.

I'm an avid online reader of the New York Times, The Huffington Post, and a few other news sources and I'm a frequent participant on Huffington Post Live.  While I enjoy reading the articles and participating in the video interviews, oftentimes when I sit back and read the comments, I am deeply saddened by many of the hateful and bitter comments that people feel that they are entitled to write cloaked behind the anonymity of their computer screens.  There's freedom of speech for you, I guess.

Recently, Cheerios posted this ad on their YouTube channel featuring an interracial family.  This is not the original post, but the comments under the original were horrifying.  I'm not kidding.  I felt like crying.  Naturally, there were  positive comments, but there were FAR more negative comments than positive.  How do we combat prejudice and hatred when the Internet gives everyone a license to say whatever they want anonymously?





Over the weekend, however, I saw this video response to the ad...




Be kind, everybody.