Social media sites can be extremely helpful. In emergencies like natural disasters, use of platforms like Twitter and Instagram have been used to even save lives. People have been able to alert their friends for help during robberies, as well as let their family know that they are okay during a flood or earthquake. But there is also a dark side to them and, unfortunately, some of the heroes we look up to most have been caught using certain apps for evil and shame.
Secret group targets military women
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating several “so called” secret Facebook pages on which there are posts of women in various stages of undress.
A page called “Marines United” is one of the largest with over 30,000 members, and the initial target of the investigation. Most of these victims were unaware that they were photographed at all, let alone that the pictures were posted online. The members of the pages have turned out to be primarily Marines, but it has been discovered that all branches of the military seem to be represented.
It is believed by the investigators that most of the ladies exposed are members of the armed forces who signed up to risk their lives defending their country, but did not bargain for being publicly shamed or becoming a target of cyberbullying. While the active investigation has just begun, it might also be beneficial to look at how some of our finest men have taken such a downward spiral.
Unthinkable now acceptable
Leadership starts at the top. These soldiers have a new Commander-in-chief that can order them into harm’s way at any given moment. Quite naturally there will always be those in any society that are going to look up to and strive to be just like their leader.
In this case President Donald J. Trump showed his apparent lack of respect for women long before election day.
During the campaign, audio tapes emerged of him bragging about how women will let a rich man do anything and how he could even “grab them by the pu**y” if he wanted to. These impressionable young men in the armed forces aren’t blind. They saw how Trump was rewarded for his views by being given the keys to the White House; and hence, the logical conclusion would be that if he can do it, then what we are doing is just the same fun “locker room talk."
By and large the men and women in uniform are people of honor and do us all proud.
But this is just the beginning and needs to be nipped in the bud. It’s time that we the people lift our voices and let everyone know that this kind of talk and these kinds of pictures are not okay. And that goes for everyone from the entry level private in the armed forces to the holder of the most powerful position in the free world, Donald J. Trump.
