Sonny Fulks

Managing Editor

Sonny Fulks is a graduate of Ohio State University where he pitched four varsity seasons for the Buckeyes from 1971 through 1974. He furthered his baseball experience as a minor league umpire for seven seasons, working for the Florida State League (A), the Southern League (AA), and the American Association (AAA). He has written for numerous websites, and for the past fourteen years has served as columnist and photo editor for The Gettysburg Magazine, published by the University of Nebraska Press, in Lincoln Nebraska. His interests include history, support for amateur baseball, the outdoors, and he has a music degree from Ohio State University.

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If you’re posting on Facebook to let the world know that you disapprove of the president, the country’s direction, and your rights being threatened, consider not only what you say…but how you say it.

I won’t take long or use many words to express the following sentiment about recent posts that are showing up on my personal Facebook account.

Frankly, I don’t remember why I even have one because last year I think I posted to it seven times – mostly battlefield photos, if I remember.

But I’ll confess that I spent some time this week “cleaning up”, removing objectionable posters from my “follow” list.  The “shared” comments about Trump simply too vulgar, too questionable, and too insulting to everyone…with the exception, probably, of Donald Trump.

Not that these aren’t representative of the America we live in now, because they are. But I don’t go to movies where they drop the “F” bomb, either, so I’m not going to look at or read it on Facebook. I don’t want to offend anyone by saying you’re not a ‘friend’ anymore, I’ve just had my limit of the “least common denominator”.

Look, I’m no prude and I’m not exclusive of a little vulgarity. I grew up around locker rooms, I’ve worked in a steel mill, and I’m very aware of what’s on the internet. But there’s always been the choice of not participating, or making myself unavailable to it.

I’m aware, too, that politicians lie from both parties, even the ones you say you like. I know that drives people crazy, because we all know by now that you really can’t keep your doctor if you like the one you’ve got; and that your premiums for health insurance really aren’t going to go down, as promised.

But there is a limit to amount of protest that you can watch that’s without substance. And when I see someone carrying a sign that reads, “F” you, and “F” this, and “F” that,  I want to say, “Really?”  Entertainers and educated people from nearly every field, and that’s the best you’ve got?  When I see those people in our society that win awards for artistic expression provide the wrong example for the ears of impressionable eight-year-olds, I’m saying it’s time for a lot of us to check out, go someplace for four years, and cool off.

It isn’t that I’m against anyone’s right to expression. That’s something guaranteed by the very constitution that some denigrate and others misrepresent. And I exercise my own right to do so, occasionally.  Here, for instance.

But when popular TV shows rip the ten-year-old son of the president for the sake of questionable humor, then the class and character of our culture that laughs becomes highly suspect, as well. They’re not expressing anything, they’re just sore.

To be honest, I’ve never thought it funny when minority comedians use racial slurs for a laugh…the same ones they claim are offensive when directed at them by people of a different color. Not the right context, they claim. But it sounds the same, so why isn’t it all the same offense?

So to the community of social media that might wonder why they’re not getting through anymore – we’ll reopen that discussion when we regain some civility, or at least a more communicative narrative.

Until then I’ll be watching re-runs of the Cubs and Indians…without protest.