Saturday, September 20, 2008

Love It or Hate It

I was recently reading my friend's blog about an episode on the Oprah show regarding internet predators.  My friend was upset because Oprah was reading a document that internet predators want kids to read.  A sort of How -To book apparently.  The comments to this blog were about how disgusted they were that Oprah would read something like that to the world because it is letting people know how to go about doing disgusting things to children.  I have not seen this episode but have read about it online.   
Let's be honest, people do not need a how to book... that's what pornography does.  It's looking at pictures not reading detailed information on how to do these things.  
My opinion of this is not shared by my friend or the comments others have made. I am not disgusted by Oprah or what she presents on her show.  I commend her for taking such an intense and somewhat disgusting topic and bringing it to light.  People are aware of the predators lurking on the internet but I really feel they don't really get what they are capable of doing.  In her own mind I feel that Oprah thinks it is her job to bring these things to light.  Kudos to her because let's be honest, no one else appears to be willing to do it to the degree she does.
We have become in some way accustomed to censorship and that people get outraged when the news shows a dead person who may happen to have wet blood on them or they are not completely covered up... why is there outrage in this but not outrage when it comes to child abuse, domestic violence, etc???  Why is this okay?  C'mon.  There should be more outrage about the acts of violence and disgust that are happening in the world than towards the people who are bringing it to light. 
I work in an industry where I am confronted by violence, abuse, incest on a daily basis. It's disgusting but someone has to do it and someone has to be the voice of those who do not have one.  Oprah is the voice of those people who are victims.  She is also making a lot of predators angry for making 'normal' people aware of how to do these things. They don't want others knowing... just their 'crowd'.  
Kudos to Oprah and the other nameless people who want to make this world better by bringing the harder things to light.  Think about how little you would know about these topics if Oprah wasn't bringing them to light.  Personally, I like watching those shows because I am more educated about the topic and I can better prepare my children.  I cannot let my children live in a bubble and not know what is happening.  Things happen that we have no control over (outside AND inside the confines of a family).

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Insults

I have been insulted many times in my life. It comes with the territory of being a social worker and child protection worker. I'm used to it.  It is very different however when it comes from a video game.
We recently bought a Wii Fit. I love the Wii but was leery of this game until I tried it at a friend's house. I loved it. So there I was doing my strength training, pushups to be exact and let's be honest, I can't do the 'real' pushups. I do the girly ones. While I was doing them my 'personal trainer' tells me "I can see you aren't very strong".  All I could say was "excuse me, you don't know me." Then I hear my husband laughing in the background.  
I haven't done the pushups since.