Sometimes We Have to Do the Right Thing

[This post has been updated Monday morning.]

I de-friended a guy on Facebook tonight. Ronnie Walker, a musician from Houston with a penchant for guns, Ted Nugent, and white people.

My biggest mistake was not capturing his status update before I defriended him because you would not believe the shit. He was going on about how white people have controlled the planet from the very beginning, and bragging about it, and he was getting a little pissed off lately at how things were being called into question.

I should have defriended him when he took the pro-Ted Nugent/pro-gun stance, but I'm all about the Constitution and free speech and all that shit. But the knife in the gut was today.

Here was my reply: (the second reply; I don't have a copy of my first, about how white men were also responsible for the atomic bomb, strip malls, and perhaps, strip clubs. Damn me to hell for not saving them.)

Delete. In the name of all that is right, delete. Sorry Ronnie, get some help. TV doesn't make white people look stupid. WHITE PEOPLE make white people look stupid. I've said this all along.

And thus endeth a Facebook relationship, one which didn't have a lot of tap root to begin with. Sorry for ending a sentence in that grammatical fashion.

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UPDATE: I also left a comment last night on the Facebook page of a mutual friend here in Austin. Her name is Charlotte and she is a promoter of local music here in Austin. I wanted her to be aware of the racism being spewed by Ronnie since he has played here in Austin in one or more of her events.

This morning she sent me a message and copied the additional comments which were in response to my last exiting comment on Ronnie's page. Here we go:

Ronnie Walker:Well Win,they only show really goofy fuckers on TV.Are you a goofy fucker?No you're not.Im with you on the gay issues but don't think Im a dipshit because I'm white or from the south.Us white folks better stick together or we're gonna be gone.

Charlotte Shafer:Pat Buchanan and Sarah Palin make white people look stupid on TV. Comments like this make white people look stupid on FB. Sorry Ronnie I'm with Win.

Larry Parcell:Charlotte What do you do? I can't wait to hear what state that you govern

Larry Parcell:Win you're a pethetic idiot!!!!!!!!!! What other race, you stupid fuck has done shit for humanity!!!!!! Name one ?????Blacks,Asians,Arabs You need to shut the fuck up. Go spit on a white soldier who keeps you safe at night. My blood is boiling

Larry Parcell:Please don't try to respond with some profound liberal horseshit. I think you should leave this country. By force!!!!!!!!!! And go live in some countyr where you think people are nice and smart.

Larry Parcell:And not white!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Charlotte Shafer:Ronnie, Win may have de-friended you but I am not going to de-friend you, because I want a chance to hear from you that you didn't really mean it, you were drunk and/or maybe thinking you were being funny and just parodying a racist, because up until this point it's not something I would have ever expected from you. And as for that Larry Parcell guy he can kiss my big fat white ass.

Kim Evans:Amen

On her blog, Charlotte wrote a short piece titled Honky Tonk Heroes and Racism.

This guy, Larry Parcell, is the lead guitarist and songwriter for a band in Houston named "Honky Tonk Heroes". I can tell you that MY honky-tonk heroes, some of whom are named on Mr. Parcell's MySpace page, would NOT approve of his so-called opinions. I strongly urge you to boycott him and his band, should you ever have the opportunity to see or hear them, and if you should be so inclined to let others know, feel free to spread the word.

Racism is alive and well in 21st century America, under a black American president, and plenty of people are not only willing to be openly and blatantly racist, some are even willing to stake their careers on it.

Survival of the Fittest

I know this isn't funny, but I'm sorry; I'm grinning like a opossum.

Put down the gadgets before you're hit by a truck. Jesus. H. Christ.

A Staten Island teen trying to text while walking fell into an open manhole - and city officials have launched an investigation.

Alexa Longueira, 15, was walking with a friend along Victory Blvd. on Wednesday when she suddenly dropped underground.

"She's all scraped up on her back, under her arms and her shoulders," her mother, Kim Longueira, said

Apparently it tweaked Pam’s sense of humor with her post title which also cracked me up.

Maybe a lot of people are more coordinated than I am. I don't even like to walk while talking on a cell phone, must less texting. I don't text actually. I find typing on a full-sized keyboard tedious enough. And all this time I've assumed it's just me and my old age less than youthful vitality. Thankfully, I've been proven wrong by a 15-year-old.

The Book of Many Faces

I enjoy Facebook a lot. When I initially signed on I had an infatuation with it which lasted several weeks and then died down. Then for a long while I was rather indifferent to it until recently when I realized how great it is as a closely-knit community forum. I especially like that I can get to know people a lot better -- people I consider friends but most of whom I've never actually met.

It's also an interesting study in human behavior, especially the rationale for friending someone. Or unfriending.

“If someone with more than 1,000 friends unfriends me, I get offended,” said Greg Atwan, an author of “The Facebook Book,” a satirical guide. “But if someone only has 100 friends, you understand they’re trying to limit it to their intimates.”

Mr. Atwan, a recent graduate of Harvard (where Facebook got its start), recommends culling your friend list once a year to remove total strangers and other hangers-on. Keeping your numbers down gives you more leeway to be selective about whom you approve in the first place, he said.

All of my friend requests recently have come from people I know personally, or know via blogging. Earlier I had a few from people I don't know at all. One of two are active in the local Austin music scene who apparently were friending anyone who appeared to have a taste for music. And there are a couple who did the same for anyone with a taste for blogging, even though I have no idea how they found me.... probably from my comments at large blogs.

I don't recall if I have ever unfriended anyone. Because I believe Facebook is not only a source of entertainment and keeping track of people you know, it's also a networking tool, and you never know when some obscure person in your list of friends might someday have a useful bit of advice, or share a piece of useful information, etc.

And yet, at the same time, I find myself somewhat annoyed when I see a "friend's" icon in my list and say to myself, "I don't have a clue why that person friended me."

Interestingly enough, there was a time when I really wanted my Facebook friends to be people I only knew through blogging, not people with whom I grew up, went to school, worked, or just met in life. Putting yourself "out there" on Facebook inevitably results in people finding you whether you want them or not. Once in awhile I get a request from someone I personally know or have known, and my gut instinct is to just start another Facebook page under the name konagod, and shut mine down completely! But I add them. Usually after an initial flurry of the inevitable hiya doin's, they drift on quietly, leaving behind an icon to mark their spot.

All of this is leading up to a very simple Question of the Day:

Have you ever unfriended anyone, and what was your rationale? And also if you just never accepted a friend request from someone for whatever reason.