From time to time I get asked when I’m going to start allowing people to post comments here on Laughing Water. I really struggled with that in the beginning because of ad hominem attacks, the nature of anonymous rants, and, quite frankly, the growing lack of civility in the Anglican/Episcopal blogosphere.
I’m sure that comments will soon begin to appear here. Those who want to join the conversation, however, will have to use their first and last real names under all but the most extenuating circumstances and will have to abide by a code of civility. I’ll have to pray about the contours of that code, but I think it’s absolutely necessary.
My opinion about this has only grown stronger after reading about a recent hit-and-run accident in St. Petersburg, Florida. Last month a car struck a man named Neil Alan Smith, a dishwasher at a restaurant in that city, while he was riding his bicycle home from work. The car didn’t stop, and Mr. Smith died six days later. Not long after an article about the accident and Mr. Smith’s death appeared on the website of the St. Petersburg Times, someone posted this comment:
A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.
Here’s what happened next:
Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man’s friends and family. Though hardly unusual — check out the comments beneath stories about any recent tragedy — this one spurred the Times to make Mr. Smith the subject of this story, as a reminder that every life matters.
The article continues with details of Mr. Smith’s life. It’s worth taking a few minutes to read about those details and about some of the people who knew him and miss him. Here’s a final excerpt:
Mr. Smith died Sept. 18, three days before his 49th birthday.
Dayhoff, his boss at Crab Shack, read the story on the Times website and found himself outraged by unsympathetic comments posted by some readers.
“I just can’t get over some of those people reacting the way they did,” he said. “This guy was a human being. He might not have meant something to somebody else, but he was like family to us. He meant something to us.”
Indeed, every life matters. That includes your own life as someone who was created in the image of God. So think twice before you make that comment.
