We all do it. We're all guilty of it. Who doesn't love a good story? But most of the time it's just "innocent" talk. But my question is....do people ever stop to think about how gossip can hurt people?
The kind of gossip I'm referring to isn't about who's sleeping around, or who's doing what. The kind of gossip/rumors that I'm talking about and when someone passes away. Y'all {probably} know exactly what I'm talking about.
Someone you know passes away and everyone starts talking. By the time the story gets around it's blown up 10x's what it really was. The first time I experienced this was when my son's best friend lost his brother. Rusty and Chief were in the 8th {or 9th} grade. Chiefs brother was on a hayride during the Sugarcane Festival {a festival in my home town}, he fell off of the hayride and was run over by the trailer that he'd fallen from. It was sad, and tragic. Chief and Rusty both took it really hard. Brad was a wonderful brother and a great friend to my son.
Rusty and Chief both decided to go to school the Monday after it happened {two days after the accident}. I had to go check Rusty out 45 minutes after he got there. The rumors were everywhere. He was drunk and fell off the hayride {not true}, he was pushed off the hayride {not true}, he fell "on purpose" {not true...wth?}.
How could all of those kids not realize how those rumors would hurt Chief? Wasn't it bad enough that he was dealing with his brother's death? Even worse? The police department in my hometown was later sued by Chiefs parents when the Mayor called them to tell them that she'd found out that 4 of her police officers were suspended that morning for passing around pictures of their sons body.
When Rusty's Dad committed suicide...the same thing. I couldn't begin to tell you how many rumors I've heard. For as long as I'd known him he'd had problems {off and on} with cocaine and meth. I'd never known him to smoke crack. But the night before his funeral one of his good friends and his neighbor came up to me in a restaurant to tell me "You know why he did it huh? CRACK!" I just looked at my sister and told her to get this mofo away from me before I punched him.
I mean...maybe it was true. But did he really think it was appropriate to come to his ex wife and good friend the night before his funeral to inform me of the rumor that he was spreading about him? Effin' idiot!
My last trip home I was informed that his own brother {my ex bro in law} was telling everyone that Brent {my ex, Rusty's Dad} had found out that the girl he was seeing had Aids and that's why he did it. I was boiling. And I swear...my ex bro in law better hope I don't see him anytime soon. I mean...even if that was true, why would you...HIS BROTHER...go around telling everyone that?
Does it really matter why he decided to stick a rifle in his mouth and kill himself? He's dead. He killed himself. There's no reason in the world that's a good enough reason for what he did. But the man has kids, parents, and people who loved him. And those rumors HURT. It hurt me for my son, it hurt me for me and it hurt me for Brent. Just let him rest in peace damn it.
The reason I'm on my "soapbox" about this? There was a prominent orthodontist killed {murdered} in my home town Monday morning. I'd had the pleasure of spending some time with him socially, he was a wonderful, thoughtful man. He started the Kid ID program in our town {where they go to the schools and fingerprint the kids and then put the fingerprints into a database for law enforcement}, he donated bikes to low income kids in the community, and he sponsored brown bag concerts on Main street.
Imagine my surprise when I logged onto FB yesterday and read some of the rumors going around on there. I read the newspaper at home online everyday so I already knew that reports were saying that he wasn't shot or stabbed, but they weren't releasing his exact cause of death at the time.
There's a guy who WAS on my friends list who kept posting stuff about Doc's {don't want to put his name in here} death...every two frickin' minutes. About how he was shot in the head, then about how he was stabbed five times. None of it was true. He was also posting crap because the man who was arrested for the murder appears to be Mexican. So naturally he assumed that he was illegal...and that we need to get all illegals out of our country. Yeah...that's going to comfort his family!
All I could think was...OMG his poor son. His son is a Marine who is fighting for our country. And he's also on this idiots friends list. So if he happened to sign into FB...he could have seen all of this shit that this
Don't people think anymore? Don't people consider other peoples feelings before they speak? Uugh! It kills me. Needless to say this douche canoe isn't on my friends list anymore. And they say women like to gossip? I couldn't tell you how many times this guy has done the same thing before. When someone in my hometown passes away I usually found out from his FB postings before I could even read the damn newspaper.
Whew...sorry y'all. It's just something that's close to my heart, I guess because of my ex's suicide and the rumors that are still going around. Think before you speak, especially about such a sensitive subject!
Click below to pour your heart out too!
Did y'all see on the news this morning about the woman in Ohio who helped a police office who was being attacked by a man he'd pulled over? Lol... have you seen the video? She helped that cop whip that guys ass! Hilarious! You can see the video here.
I just finished reading the 3rd {and last} book in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series last night. Dayum... I love the way it ended. The first book was really hard for me to get into, but once I did I couldn't put it down. The last two books were much better! I'm sad that there aren't going to be anymore books in the series. Can't wait for the movies though. They should be good.
Since I've been up all damn night I started reading another book. Play Dead by Harlan Coben. ♥ his books! I've read every one of them so far!
Anybookworm...I started reading it last night and I'm already on page 241. Yeah...it's that good!
Well that's my thoughts for the day! Don't forget to enter my giveaway, it's ending next week! Have a great {gossip free} day y'all!
7 comments:
Wow! I can't believe how people flap their traps. Its gross.
I was thinking about reading those The Girl with... books...
I've been hesitating to read the last 2 books of that Stieg Larsson series because the first was so hard to get into. I'll finish them now!
That girl kicking that punks ass was funny!!
And gossip...oh gossip. It can and does ruin peoples' lives. And FB is a place where people do it too much.
No, people don't think, at all. There was an incident that happened more than 20 years ago where I can still hear the idiot saying what she did about something that she had no clue about that was very personal to my family. (vague comment, I know, but explaining it would take a book)
I've had relatives pass away, but never heard rumors like that. Probably because I stuck around my Dad during the funerals. My Dad always believes in remembering the good and funny things about the person who passed and would tell the stories and laugh (some people would give Dad ugly looks for laughing), but Dad figured that the person who passed would want to be remembered for the good and happy things in life.
That said... I can believe people creating ugly rumors. I don't understand it, but I know it does exist in our darkest nature. Very sad...
I agree with you about how especially that kind of gossip can be. I recently lost my brother and to be honest I hope the rumours never reach me about what others might be saying.
It's just sad when people gossip about someone's death. Let them rest in peace and let the family grive. So sad.
Popping in to say Merry Christmas to you. I hope you have a good one!
That's terrible that someone would gossip like that! I still have to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo! I will get to it one day!
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