The Internet has a long memory

In this quickly revolving world arena of immediate news, social networking, and instant gratification, it seems, everyone is afraid that someone will scoop someone. Or someone will complain first. Or someone will know something before someone else. We all need to grow up and slow down.

The newest victim of this incessant race to tell all is former USDA official Shirley Sherrod. Apparently, 24 years ago, while employed by a non-profit organization, Sherrod made a speech. In her speech, African-American Sherrod, claimed she didn’t help a white farmer as much as she could have. She THEN goes on to say that she realized she was wrong  – that issues such as these don’t boil down to race, they boil down to economic status.

Twenty-four years later the NAACP got into a fight with the tea party, and a conservative blogger posted a portion of her speech (the portion which seemed racist) on his blog. Word spread. Shirley was fired from her current position and the media jumped on the bandwagon. Again, take a deep breath and slow down.

The person who asked for her resignation has now stated that he will review the decision and possibly offer Sherrod her old job back. Really? Seriously? How do you think a person who has had their character aired nationwide will ever be able to go about business as usual? It is sort of akin to a newspaper printing a retraction over an error in an article… people don’t remember the retraction, they remember the story.

What does this episode teach us? It should teach us to investigate all the facts before jumping to conclusions. It should teach us that our past can always come back to haunt us. It should teach us to, in this era of online presence, guard what we say and where we say it. People we are “friends” with now, may not be our friends in the future (did you know Walmart, and others, allow friends to print their friends Facebook photos?). The Internet has a long memory and we need to be prepared.

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