A few hours ago, Auntie called and said, “They think they know who you are but its me!” Questions come to mind, such as (1) Who are “they” and (2) Who am I? (3) Why are you me? and (4) What are we talking about?
Online news forums apparently.
Yes, the subversive folks of Rogersville have found their own little corner on the world wide web. Every pissed off person in town has frequented this national news site which features local chat forums. At first, folks communicated their frustration about the appointment of a new park director, the local government, the newspaper, the sidewalk, the weather, the staff, who was sleeping with whom and… geez, once they started, they could not seem to stop.
Initially, I got a kick out of the whole thing. I had no fondness for most of the folks getting trashed and as far as I was concerned, this was karma returning to bite them in the arse. Then, I posted a comment. It took all over five minutes to piss off half the world… and believe it or not, this is a personal best for me as it usually takes me an entire week or more to infuriate that many people at once. Suddenly, fate had sicced my own karma on me. To make matters worse, Norton Internet Security suddenly decided that the word verification window was an ad and blocked it… so, I couldn’t even defend myself without some massive tweaking. Man, I don’t even have time to shave my legs much less tweak.
Thanks to several friends, the girls at the office and family members – I still receive the posts via email. I am apparently rumored to be online under 40 screen names, a hacker, my Mamma and possibly the freakin’ Roman Catholic pope. Close friends and family constantly encourage me to go online and refute the rumors about who I am, who I am not and the truth about who I was supposed to be and will be, which is the same as who I was… what? At this point, I am so confused I’m not sure that I am who I think I am.
And why bother? In Rogersville, people will believe what they have predetermined to be true – regardless of evidence to the contrary. So, what should I do? Well, hanging up on Auntie and going to shave my legs was a great start, I think.
