We live in an ugly world.
Part of that ugliness resides in a world I know all too well. It's the cyberworld of anonymous posters - or at least they think they are - who fill the Internet with their own special brand of hate.
There are a lot of things I like about the Internet. Actually, I don't have a lot of choice. It's where I spend most of my day. If you haven't noticed, the way we deliver information to readers has radically changed. No longer are we content to print the newspaper once a day. News no longer pays much attention to our old print deadlines, or clocks in general. It's a 24-hour enterprise.
That ability, being able to stream an unlimited amount of information to readers 24 hours a day, is among the best aspects of the online world in which I toil.
The worst? That's pretty easy as well.
We who practice this craft called journalism are no longer alone. We still have a large voice. But we are hardly the only voice.
Today, every person with person with a phone, tablet or laptop is a publisher. That is not always a good thing.
I do not publish anything - on Twitter, Facebook or the Daily Times (both in print or online) - that my name does not stand behind.
Nothing I do is anonymous.
Obviously, not everyone online plays by the same rules.
You'd be amazed what people are willing to say under the veil of anonymity. I call it the tech version of "beer muscles." "Internet muscles," if you will.
Don't believe me? Simply scroll down to the bottom of any story posted on DelcoTimes.com and look at some of the comments that are posted there. All too often, it devolves quickly into name-calling and racial invective.
I am not sure why, but far too many stories eventually come down to an issue of black and white. And I'm not talking about newsprint.
Racism is not new. The ways it is disseminated are.
In part, we can blame ourselves for part of this. We do no monitor online comments, or edit them before they are posted. We react to what is posted only after someone complains.
I sometimes refer to conversations that take place online as the "wild, wild West."
If only they were that tame.
Last night, some misguided individual decided to post a threat against students at schools in Chester and Chichester school districts.
It was hateful stuff. It was hateful stuff, specifically targeting black students at "every Chester Upland School District School, Chester Community Charter School and Chichester High School." The Instagram post signed off with an ugly threat that singled out all black students.
I first became aware of it while performing my last daily online task - making one last check of my email before sliding off into a coma for a few hours.
I got an email from a friend, Sister Maggie Gannon from Drexel Neumann Academy in Chester. She received the threat from one of her parents and was looking for guidance. I told her she should immediately contact Chester police and the county District Attorney's Office. Then I called the office to make sure we were aware of the threat, and checking with authorities to see if they considered it credible and were investigating.
Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland's office, as well as Upland police and Chichester School District quickly confirmed that they were aware of the threat and that it was being investigated.
In the overnight hours, they announced the arrest of a 17-year-old girl, a student at Chester High.
We likely will learn later today what charges might be filed in the case, and whether or not the girl will be charged as an adult.
I quickly alerted Sister Maggie this morning of the arrest to try to put her mind at ease. I imagine she had a very uneasy night.
There are a lot of good people in this county, and in the city of Chester as well.
Sister Maggie is one of the best.
I could tell from the tone of her emails that she was concerned and genuinely wondering what the school should do.
Likewise, it has been an especially trying time for Dr. Kathy Sherman. She's the superintendent of the Chichester School District. Last week she was dealing with a bomb threat, one linked to a series of threats made against schools up and down the East Coast. The district schools were evacuated after the threat.
Last night she posted on the school district Facebook page about the latest threat, noting that police were immediately notified and they were working to determine if it was credible.
As you might expect, the original posted threat and community reactions blew up on the Internet.
Chester Upland schools will be open as normal today. They actually had been closed the past two days as the city continues to recover from the monster snow storm over the weekend.
Clearly, recovering - and eradicating - the kind of ugly hate that lurks in all those small, dark corners of the Internet, is going to take a bit longer.
We will follow up on the story today.
Developments will be quickly posted on our website, Twitter and Facebook.
I shudder to think about the tone of the comments that will undoubtedly follow, most by people unwilling to put their name beside their thoughts.
That's the world we live - and work - in today.
I think of these things every time I hear someone make the comment that we have come so far when it comes to race relations in this country?
I have no doubt that is true. I also have no doubt we still have a long way to go.
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