-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Lindsey Stone, a 30-year-old Massachusetts native, has been terminated because of the photo (shown left) she posted on her Facebook page. Lindsey worked for LIFE (Living Independent Forever), a Cape Cod-based nonprofit organization that assists adults with learning disabilities. Jamie Schuh, who took the photo, and Lindsey’s supervisor at LIFE, was also terminated.
The two were on a company-paid trip to Washington D.C. when the photo was taken. The photo shows Lindsey mocking a sign at Arlington National Cemetery. The photo went viral and over 30,000 people liked a Facebook page set up to demand her firing. The two have apologized for the gag:
We never meant any disrespect to any of the people nationwide who have served this country and defended our freedom so valiantly.
While the photo obviously mocks the sign, many apparently thought it mocked those buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A sign demanding “Silence and Respect” deserves to be mocked. The wording of the sign projects a sense of arrogance and entitlement common to institutions that view themselves as sacred cows.
Adding the word “Please” to the sign would change the command to a request, a more sensible sentiment.
H/T: Mano Singham, Gawker, Boston Herald.
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I707 – Have you been so totally swept up in your “cradle to grave” caretaking state that you can’t get off your own rear end and do a little research about me. It’s out there, easy enough that JAG found it. So, you “could” have been shipped off to Nam. That would make you as much of a REMF as you might consider me. And such personal, vindictive petty snark about bikers. Tell me I707 – what has been your contribution to the rights of others?
As for JAG, yeah, I’m such a dumb ass that I’m having trouble thinking of the female equivalent of a misogynist to describe you. If I knew what it was, I’d say it; but if calling you a spoiled brat makes you cry, then any stronger word would probably make your head implode. At least you’ve got a bigger set of huevos than certain PR spokes-whores on this list. And as with I707, what have you done for others lately, other than to admonish them about their lack of style.
And to the both of you, keep it coming. At least it keeps you occupied with your petty meaningless rants against others, and like I said – DILLIGAF.
We’ve lost the essence of the original article – (1) The woman screwed up; (2) She was on her employer’s dime and time; (3) She committed a certain act, for which there were consequences, and whether she thought about them or not, she was being too cute for her own good; (4) She flaunted her stupidity to a world-wide audience, bringing discredit to her employer; (5) The employer weighed their options, and fired her; (6) End of story.
As for my contributions to this thread, there are things that result in a visceral reaction for me, and unfortunately, Ms. Stone hit the trifecta; (1/2)Arlington is THE highest place for military honor and respect to fallen heroes; (3) It is also my father’s resting place. Were it that JAG had more respect for her grandfather.
BTW – Whether someone agrees with me in whole or in part, I’ve never considered that as having them fight my battles for me. Interesting that I’ve drawn some very strong support regarding past issues from you I707. While I’ve appreciated that, I’ve never been of the opinion you had my back in a particular “fight”; it was just agreeing on an issue. No more, no less.
Ohhh I get it Dr. Seuss…..
I’m a spoiled brat, because I don’t bow down and kiss your Patriotic Ass…..
Could you be anymore transparent????
You came here with your BS about being in the Military, thinking that makes YOU better than ME… THOUGH… I must say… I HIGHLY doubt it… If you get your feelings hurt so easily as to want to kick a woman’s ass over a photo… sounds to me as if you have awfully thin skin….
You then try to insult me, rather than debate the topic at hand…..
You might want to think about taking advantage of that GI Bill…. Then maybe in the future you can DEBATE me, rather than using insults….
OS,
Stop waving the flag. We are dealing with a bully here. A VFW cap/sap does not make him either a patriot or a judge on other peoples need for physical violence.
Your red herring won’t distract us from deriding “patriot” idiots for their foolishness.
Or have you supported all our wars? Did you do armed service? I did, and risked being shipped to Vietnam.
I did not even consider the “rightness” of the war there. The news ate up the Tonkin BS, as did the public, congress etc. So why not me too.
Getting an understanding of that con game requires reading “Secrets” by Ellsberg, a man with demonstrated guts in a uniformed capacity and a genuine patriot of his country. He worked for two slaving years to become a marine officer, and acvanced on merit to batttalion S-3, planning ops off the ME med coast on board a troop ship. Ready and waiting for the order to come.
Hope you have read it.
This Shamus creep won’t even reveal his service record, although he feels that it gives him the right to do criminal acts. What kind of people do you support?
So get off the parade and think civil.
Junction shame,
I knew that the ex-pat dig would come. You telegraphed it when writing to her. Now you are showing your jingoistic bigotted side.
So are you going to:
—telll us about your military career? Or are you too ashamed to say?
—tell us why you think a military experience gives the right to physically abuse others in a criminal fashion?
—tell us when they diagnosed dementia, or is it Alzheimers?
—tell us why Gurl is a spoiled brat?
Betcha you are not the man to answer even one of the above queries.
So you have bikers as clients. What does that make you in your eyes.
Go back to sucking biker mufflers.
Come on, man up. Where’s your service resumé, soldier?
Hmmm – Caught between an ex-pat and spoiled brat. What can a guy say?
Other than paraphrasing Shakespeare – “Methinks they protest too much”?
And to quote my biker clients, “DILLIGAF…”
Rich versus poor people is a false equivalence fallacy. Dead is dead and they were all loved by their families.
As for the sign, if it said “Please” that suggests that being quiet is optional. It is not. We have a sign in our waiting room that says, “Please be seated.” Sitting down is optional, per the sign.
Listen to the words of Abraham Lincoln to get an idea of what this is all about.
id707:
there is more than one.
I know many people who grow up in modest circumstances and go on to do quite well in this country.
Dave Thomas was an orphan as an example. The stories are numerous of poor people rising to wealth. It isnt that hard to do. Marriott hotels started as A&W shops in Washington, DC. I could go on and on.
You dont know what you are talking about on this subject.
Bron, Write many tearjerking movie scripts? Garbage. Show me a millionaire’s son buried there and then I will weep. America, the land of no opportunity for the poor, offers a “good deal” in Iraq, etc. A hoot.
DonS, never give up the fight. The idiots will win.
Bugdrown, most of the vsitors can not understand more than these few words.
Shamus, where is your answer on your service record? Nothing to brag about I guess. Were you ever in danger? Doubt it. Memberr of the VFW?
Ariel, and I thought you intelligent, or perhaps that comment was deep irony.
Company welfare before human constitutional rights. Right! If we ignored it and went about our business allowing people to speak, and concern ourselves with the message or style, but not bring out the product boycott threat, then it all would be solved. What a heap of crap we are.
Thanks GeneH. Says it all. Both as to the pitchforkers and the ignoble ignorant leaders, and the stupid system behind it all.
Anybody I missed. Oh yeah, GURL. Must go read your profile and get a laugh. We need more girls like you here to wake up the bigots and hypocrites.
I drove through Arlington Cemetery one day, a few years ago. I dont know if the ground is hallowed and I dont know the history, motivation or background of all the people who are buried there but for the most part they are young men, civilians mostly, who were asked to fight for their country. They went, knowing the possible outcome. I imagine many went willingly, as we saw after 9-11, even though we had a draft in our past. These young men, at the beginning of life, gave theirs because they thought America is an idea worth the cost, their family and friends were worth the cost.
I have read many tales of heroism from all of our wars, they amaze me and humble me. That men like that are buried in Arlington makes it sacred ground. You cannot visit that place and not shed tears.
What that woman did was heartless, she has every right to do it but she is a heartless buffoon nonetheless. Her behavior is disgusting.
The fact that we should even need a sign telling us to show reverence for our fallen citizen soldiers is an indication of how low we have come as a society.
“And the facts are this woman’s Constitutional rights were not violated in any way.”
Absolutely. Putting this picture on a social media site where it can go viral, which it has, could easily adversely impact the company (NPO). A company has no responsibility to protect your free speech through employing you if it adversely affects their business, or if they perceive it will.
“The wording of the sign projects a sense of arrogance and entitlement common to institutions that view themselves as sacred cows.” So many institutions, so many sacred cows.
Thank you DonS….
and I could NOT agree more with your entire comment….
This was naught but a witch hunt – and like all witch hunts, the victim wasn’t a witch. A violent and paranoid mob driven by rabid ideology wanted someone to burn.
As for the disgusting “silence and respect” sign, the corpse worship deserves even MORE disrespect. Those who deserve respect don’t need to demand it, and those who demand it don’t deserve it.
BY the way.. That is…. telling Republicans “WHERE” to stick it… NOT were….
If I saw your gravatar profile correctly, you’re “into fashion”…..
Ahhhhh… My Gravatar profile… hahaha…. I wrote it as a JOKE….
If you READ what I actually WRITE in my comments, I am NOT the idiot Gurl who only likes to shop…. I was being trite….
In fact I NEVER mention shopping…. nor do I comment on any Fashion websites….
and if you google Justagurlinseattle, you will mostly see a LOT of comments on political news sites spreading my Liberal views….
It is quite clear you are missing a sense of humour….
and you missed the part where I also said I like telling Republicans were to stick it….
I tend to get an idea of who a person is by reading what the write over time… NOT what they quickly jot down in a profile…. and as I said, I wrote it as a JOKE, being that NONE of my comments EVER mention shopping….
I disagree with statements about the sign being arrogant. It is just a sign. I disagree with the suggestion that the word ‘please’ should be included. It’s no less logical to infer a request from the sign’s phrasing than it is to infer a requirement. Take it how you like.
justagurlinseattle, ceterius paribus, I like your style.
I avoided a cryptic comment to the aforementioned JunctionShamus, well just because, but I am so f–king sick and tired of these sanctimonious, only-I-am-a-patriot-and-have-the-right-to-pass-judgment blowhards I could spit.
We heard it all during the run up t the Iraq debacle: If you weren’t a vet you had no standing to even an opinion,and you were probably a cheese eating surrender monkey to boot.
Anyone with an understanding of what democracy means wouldn’t claim superiority over any other citizen just because they happened to be in the military.
JunctionShamus,
So 10 years service gives you the right to decide whose ass you plant a kick into. Wow. Thank goodness all vets are not so screwy as you are. Don’t blame it on your service time, bror. There are thousands for every screwy one of you who don’t have such crazy ideas as you do. Worship where you will and how you will, but don’t presume that your “service” gives you such rights.
One of them might be a lady Ranger who would tear you a new a55hole before you could get off the kick. What a punk you are. What was your service? Do you dare say. Or is insulting women all you can do.
If you are an example of the volunteer army then I prefer the draft one that I served in for two years active and one year reserve, ending as exec officer of a company.
People who support you should be ashamed.
When it comes to ANC, I do have a dog in this fight, a big one. I served 10 years in our nation’s military, and to most of us, this is our primary place of worship to respect those who have either paid the ultimate price, or like my father, a POW in WWII, or other distinguished personnel.
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Well…. This does NOT give you more of a “Dog in this fight” than anyone else here….
My Grandfather is buried there.
and as for your intelligent wording on how you would have dealt with Ms. Stone, had YOU witnessed her taking this photo….
WELL… YOU didn’t… NOR did anyone else for that matter….
It is OBVIOUS that she is not drawing attention to herself… that she is bending down to be discreet…. and in general, did NOT disturb anybody….
Had she troubled anyone there… has she interrupted the peace…. had she offended anybody while she was taking this photo, WE would have heard about it by now…. and YET, This is NOT the case….
“Had Ms. Stone done this in my presence, the next photo might have been the insertion of my foot in her ass.”
So, if you disagree with somebody and do not like their actions,even though they are NOT hurting or disrupting anybody, YOUR way of dealing with them, is with violence???
WOW!!!! This is how the Taliban reacts to things they disagree with as well… just at a different level…
If I saw your gravatar profile correctly, you’re “into fashion” and living in Sweden? Seems that something so fleeting as fashion would be indicative of a belief in conspicuous consumption and elitism. Beginning to think you don’t really don’t have much of a dog in this fight, deflecting the primary issue to one of consumerism.
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How you were able to pack so MUCH wrong, into so FEW words,
is simply astonishing….
NO…. I’m NOT into Fashion… I have STYLE…..
There is a difference, BUT, I do not expect you to understand this.
anyway, what the HELL does that have to do with this topic????
If you are talking about the video I posted about the people degrading themselves on Black Friday…
had YOU had been paying ANY attention… YOU would have seen that Dredd mentioned in one of his posts…..
“It reminded me of those “Black Friday” stampedes that kill people.”
as to your assertion that I do not have dog in this fight because, as you so eloquently put it, I’m “into fashion” and living in Sweden” is ONE of the most RIDICULOUS comments I have read, here on this Blawg…
“Seems that something so fleeting as fashion would be indicative of a belief in conspicuous consumption and elitism.”
It is AMAZING, YOU get all that from a black and white photo of me taken 20 years ago….
My advice to you, DON’T quit your day job.