What rhymes with canker?

If you read my friend Kristen's blog, you may already know about what happened to her last week. Someone didn't like her opinions, and so took it upon himself to find the details of her identity and workplace. Then he called her principal and sent him links of the posts where she vented about work-related things.

Now, let's get this straight first. Do Kristen and I always agree? Absolutely not. Sometimes I wonder if she secretly sacrifices puppies to Ann Coulter, and I imagine she rolls her eyes at my bleeding-heart eco-groupie tendencies. But we don't go for each other's throats about it--online or off. This is because we are self-actualized adults who understand that differences of opinion are just part of life.

What this guy did is so low and ugly and insecure and childish that I can't even believe it. Just because you disagree with someone does not mean that the next step is to cyberstalk them, completely invade their privacy, and try to damage and humiliate them professionally. Also? I love that this guy's beef with Kristen is that she's negative and says rude things about people. And this is the way he chooses to bring more sunshine and light into the world? Remind me to nominate him for Internet Monitor.

A healthy person would stop reading a blog that bothered them. What is not healthy (or ethical, or kind, or helpful) is to take it upon yourself to push an online disagreement into the real world where you hope to inflict the maximum amount of real-life damage.

What exactly was this guy hoping to gain? Does he really want to get her fired? And for what--venting about work? What she says about her job is absolutely none of his business. He's not her boss. He's not her coworker. He's not a parent of one of her students. He doesn't even live in her state. Her job has nothing to do with him, and really it had nothing to do with their disagreements, either.

Unless she was blogging about her plans to blow up the school or to seduce a student or the fact that she shows up to work stoned out of her mind, there is absolutely no reason for him to pretend to pull the Concerned Citizen card like that. The only reason he got involved in her personal life was because he could. Am I careful about what I say about work? Absolutely. But I wasn't always. It took me a little while to learn what the smart guidelines are when it comes to that kind of thing. Because there could be sick, angry people like this guy out there, waiting to pick the skin off your bones just because they can.