The Furor Over a Smile

Never in a million years would I think an innocent entry I wrote on Facebook would cause dissension. This was not on the DearBubbie Facebook Page, but on my own personal page.

BP's oil is spewing out in the Gulf of Mexico and only a few of my acquaintances understand the magnitude of this devastation. There was such an outpouring of help for Haiti's earthquake victims, but there is none (yet) for the innocent victims and the environmental loss of this man-made disaster.

As I was scrolling through my FB Home Page, I see a reporter with a big smile on his face. His location and tagline: Orange Beach, Alabama as the Gulf coast prepares for oil spill.

I comment: "Honey - why the smile on your face?"

He replies: "Because the oil's not here yet and the Alabama Coast is a nice place to visit."

Subsequent comments on his page tell him that it looks like he is enjoying his assignment!

Since, it's HIS page and he can write whatever HE WANTS on his page, I take the task to MY page. I write:

"FB Reporter friend on the Gulf Coast in Alabama with BIG SMILE on his face covering the oil spill. I ask: Why are you smiling? He replies: : "Because the oil's not here yet and the Alabama Coast is a nice place to visit." Sorry, but unreal. Is this a vacation or are you covering a devastating oil spill? Time to defriend. I'm sure the residents appreciate his consideration of their impending losses with his smile."

My subsequent comments look like this:

"Maybe he's just appreciating the beauty of the Alabama coastline before the oil craps it up, and thus the smile. As a former reporter, my assignments took me to beautiful places facing tragedies that I would never had visited otherwise."

Me: "You are kidding, right?????? You really AREN'T that self-involved or bubble-headed. I know you better than that. You had a JOB to do and focused on the task or impending devastation ahead. That to ME feels like saying I'm going to Haiti - what a beautiful country and I'll get to see it and SMILE - while these people are undergoing CRISIS. I worked in the media, too. . I'd have rather seen TEARS than a MORONIC smile!!!!!

Another writes: "I am sure when the time comes for him to focus on the story and be professional and serious he will be just that.. Sometimes you just have to make the best of a bad situation. Looking for a bright side does not make you self-involved or bubble-headed!"

Me: "it's one thing to be a tourist or a flight attendant - it's another to be on assignment reporting something horrible that is about to happen. People will lose jobs, their homes will be worth nothing, tourism will be DEAD and it will take YEARS for the environment to recover. If doom and gloom were to hit Sarasota, I don't want someone from Atlanta coming to MY HOMETOWN and 'making the best of a bad situation'. There is NO BEST to make of an oil spill caused by GREED. Say YOUR house was about to explode, your cats are inside - and there's a reporter standing in your front yard - SMILING. Would you defend him then? He got a nice vacation to Sarasota??? I honestly don't get the line of thinking. And it's not a tragedy for just Louisiana, but for our nation. This is our Gulf of Mexico. And it will affect Sarasota's beaches and waters. I think it's AMAZING that it has to happen to some people PERSONALLY to understand the enormity of what has happened and what is happening! Did you not see what I wrote about Haiti? Hey - maybe there was a bright side to the Holocaust!!!"

Me: "Didn't mean to be so sarcastic. You were just trying to explain your viewpoint. Mine is obviously very SOLID to ME as yours is to you. "

Then, I receive a comment from a holier-than-thou person who tells me it's not cool to INSULT others who have a different opinion. So, I go to HER page and there she is calling people who disagree with her views "Fat boys". Since she thrives on attention and inciting anger and drama, I simply choose to delete her comment. It always surprises me when someone tells someone else HOW to act on their own page. It's like telling someone how to behave in their own home.

I didn't even insult anyone. Except for the reporter with the moronic smile.

So more comments:

"THE TIME HAS COME! @ Julie: Totally agree Jules, except that all these waters are connected so this will affect the world! Did you know that a WWSB reporter years ago committed suicide on the air because she was so distressed over news coverage? No one with a lighthearted approach to disaster should be allowed on camera!"

And I let this woman have the last word, since typing was simply being wasted on her.

"Yip. Much better to commit suicide on the air because you are depressed with the news than to smile whilst on a beaitiful beach. Seriously?"

Later, I recalled a few years back turning on the TV the morning before Hurricane Katrina hit the coastline of Louisiana. It hadn't even hit and the tone was foreboding. I had to turn off the television. I couldn't stand to watch it.

I couldn't imagine standing where this reporter stood. In an eco-system rich with wildlife, birds, vegetation and fish and knowing that all this was going to be destroyed. And with it, jobs and homes would be lost and lives forever changed.

It hasn't reached our shoreline yet, but it will. And, if I saw a reporter standing and smiling at our impending losses, I'd want to take their ignorant unthinking asses to the middle of the oil slick and drop them off there. Let them breathe it in, drink it and try to swim in it.

This morning, I ran into an Editor at our local paper. I remained neutral and asked what she would think about a reporter smiling on the shoreline before the oil slick did its damage. "Was it a TV person?" she asked. "They'll smile at funerals!"

"No, I'd be there to do a job. It's work. Of course, I wouldn't smile."

And I'm left wondering: How can I hate someone who is justifying a smile and those that agree with that smile?

Because I do. I hate them.