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#100DaysOfHopper Day 91 - The Final Ten

Day 91: Yes Cooney, Yes Smyth, there are only ten more days (well maybe).

Do you know that Facebook, in many ways, is a time capsule? It is an ever present record of your thoughts, feelings and events that you have chosen to record and allow the world to see. Do you also realize that every racist or sexist comment, every misspelled or misused word and every time you couldn't handle the simplest of life's obstacles is here forever? Do you also know that whether you like it or not, whether it is warranted or not and whether or not it is fair, your kid are judged by your actions and what you've decided to post.

I've seen a lot of posts featuring memes about being the best mom, the best dad, the best person that someone can be, but I question it all. How can you not handle a day without coffee and curse people you love, but then claim to be the best person you can be. Think about all the pictures of you on the Internet. Would you want the same pictures of your child posted? I sure as hell know I would have shut this down years ago, had I the pleasure, the luck and the honor of having a child. While we all love your pics of the little ones sleeping or laughing, remember, they are also tied to your other pictures, posts and whatever else you share.

I'm not trying to sound self righteous, but I've met some of your children. Some of them are actually spitting images of you and your husbands and their personalities are identical to you. Virtual mini mes they are, no doubt. But don't we all want better for our kids. Do we want our children making the same mistakes we made and learning all of our bad habits. Do we really want a picture of us in an embarrassing situation with forty comments saying "best night ever?" How do we teach our youth not to do as we do, when it seems so great. Do we want our kids growing up to further the racial divide? Do we want them to hate someone for who they lay down next to, because that's how we were taught? Do we want exactly what our parents gave us or do we want more.

Like I said, I do not have kids. I have worked with kids and while people who know me from here, might have a hard time believing this, I never curse, I never slur, I never judge, I never bully and I never push my thoughts on others, when working with kids. I ask only that they use their minds to make decisions and constantly ask them to think how they would feel in another's shoes. I've heard many stories about them "finding out" things about their parents on Facebook, such as "my father smokes when he gets drunk," "my uncle has a tattoo, which is strictly forbidden in our religion," and "I think mommy has a boyfriend who isn't my daddy." I kid you not, all of those were said to me by kids, between the ages of 5 and 9, this year. This was all because of Facebook.

Listen, I happen to know, thanks to the mouths of people in Eastchester, that my political posts on Facebook have cost me at least one job, if not more. They've cost me friends (although, one has to redefine a friend who ends a friendship over a post on someone else's page). They've also made relationships very stressful. I'm not judging in the sense that I am better. I'm judging in that, I'm standing next to you in line for the abuse.

If we woke up in jail and you could only say three words to me, what would you say? "No Facebook Posts!" #100DaysOfHopper

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