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Off the Record: Words that will never go out of style

Off the Record

There are some phrases that come into style and slip right out again, like “Where’s the Beef?” or “Twenty-Three Skidoo.” (I know the origin of the first phrase, but the latter comes from the Roaring Twenties and I have no idea what it is supposed to mean.)

But there’s one phrase that never seems to go stale — “What is WRONG with people?!” It comes in handy all too frequently, as people continue to explore new depths of callousness, insensitivity and just plain bad judgment.

I had reason to use that phrase when I read an article in the Star Tribune about a suicide in a St. Paul park that sparked a fake social media story.

St. Paul police had to issue a statement Tuesday to explain that the man found hanging in a tree in Indian Mounds Park Tuesday morning had committed suicide. The statement was needed to counter a raft of supposition and false conclusions spreading around on social media.

And all that started when the man who walked past the park and found the body Tuesday morning took pictures of it and posted them on Facebook.

What is WRONG with him?! And what is wrong with the thousands who reportedly shared the images on their Facebook pages?

What has happened to our sense of social consciousness when such a grotesque discovery, instead of being reported at once to the police, becomes the subject for a Facebook post. What should have been concern for a fellow human being who was caught in the horrible loneliness of depression and perhaps mental illness became instead an opportunity to, I don’t know, gain public notice, get people to look at your Facebook page, get some clicks and make yourself feel important.

Shame on him. And shame on those who, as might be expected, started putting a false narrative to the pictures.

Despite the fact that the man hanging from the tree was white, a Black Lives Matter St. Paul Facebook page posted a statement, according to the Star Tribune, that a black man had been lynched with his hands tied behind his back. (They were not.) Others postulated that he had been hanged by police.

Please!

Have smart phones and social media done this to us? Has the ability to contact so-called “friends” without ever having to look at them or talk directly to them desensitized us to the point where we lose sight of the humanity of those around us?

I have a feeling that the phrase, “What is WRONG with people?!” will be a useful part of our lexicon for a long, long time.

——

Kevin Sweeney has been the managing editor of The Journal since May 1985. A native of St. Paul, he worked at newspapers in LeSueur and Albert Lea before moving to New Ulm. Contact him at ksweeney@nujournal.com.

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