For as far back as I can remember, we’ve always called the United States of America a free country. Right? Well, let us look into this.
Our telephone calls are bugged. Our e-mails are now being viewed and stored somewhere. Drones are in the sky are watching us. Cameras are popping up on the streets of Midwood. All that information we post on Youtube and Twitter are being warehoused by government agencies. That EZPass you have? Well there are transponders all over the city marking where you go.
We recently learned that our snail mail is being tracked. Under Obamacare, more government agencies will record our weight, height, pertinent health records, the prescriptions we take, and our sexual orientation.
So is this really a free country?
Oh, and I omitted Facebook. Facebook is a great way to keep up with friends and even hook up with old flames. Sometimes that hooking up with old flames can destroy a family. In two cases that Carol and I know, both mommies connected with high-school sweethearts. The first one divorced her husband and left two children with him while she flew out to Texas to be with Romeo. The other woman was already divorced. She totally abandoned her daughter when she flew out to Michigan to be with her old flame.
So everybody loves Facebook. Well, almost everybody. They love it until they divulge a piece of information that can and sometimes does become costly. There was a girl who announced her sweet 16 party on Facebook. Fifteen hundred people showed up to crash the event. It took a hundred cops to control the crowd.
Another teenager announced that she and her family will be sailing on a seven-day cruise. That information was picked up by some unsavory characters giving burglars an entire week to get away with another perfect crime.
A Canadian family was off to a Vancouver Canucks hockey game. When they returned they found, well, you know the rest.
A 17-year-old girl was visiting her grandmother, where she helped grandma count her money. She then took a photo of $20,000 in cash on the table and posted it on Facebook. It didn’t take long for a pair of thieves armed with a club and a knife to show up at her house. They didn’t get the 20 grand because the photo was taken at grandma’s house, but they did cause a lot of anxiety when they made off with a few bucks and some jewelry.
A Florida teenager cost her father the $80,000 he won in an age discrimination lawsuit. Part of the settlement included a confidentiality clause. The big-mouth father told his daughter, and she bragged about the settlement to the world. A court then rescinded the settlement. I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net warning all parents to keep an eye on what their children are doing. A big mouth can be costly.
