“Will hashtag activism help jailed marine?” asks Fox News commentator Lauren Ashburn.
LOL, no!
We live in a world of LOL, OMG and the somewhat rude LMAO. Thanks to Facebook, we yearn for instant ‘likes’ rather than finding meaningful ways to earn the respect of others.
Twitter ‘s hashtag has already become the preserve of the career politician who uses it as ‘proof’ that they care about the vulnerable plight of the more ordinary.
Surely the most obscene hashtag of all is #BringBackOurGirls. Sent out in the proverbial New York nanosecond when 300 Christian Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted by terrorist Boko Haram, the Michelle Obama selfie hashtag accomplished diddly squat for the schoolgirls who are still missing over a month later.
Sadly, celebrities on the make who became hashtag stars in the #BringBackOurGirls movement have no skin in the game and continue to lead their hedonistic ways.
As tragic world events were to go on to prove, the celebrity hashtag is downright discriminatory in nature. No hashtag was sent out over the Worldwide Web when a then pregnant Meriam Yahya Ibrahim awaiting flogging before death by hanging, all for being a Christian and marrying one, was left on her own. This week, Ibrahim gave birth to daughter, Maya in a squalid Sudanese prison cell where she now remains with her 22-month-old son, Martin and baby girl.
Miriam’s husband, Daniel Wani, a resident of New Jersey, is an American citizen.
Is not one Christian but only 300 worth the hashtag activism of hundreds of celebrities including a president’s wife ?
Is Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi left to languish in a Mexican prison for nearly two months not being hashstagged mostly because he’s a member of an identifiable group out of favour in today’s America, the military?
“Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi's next day in court is scheduled for June 4, a Mexican government judicial source told CNN.
“Tahmooressi is accused of illegally entering Mexico with three weapons. His family maintains that he legally owned the weapons and accidentally crossed the border.
“It is illegal to bring guns into Mexico.
“Mother Jill Tahmooressi told CNN Wednesday that her son had made an innocent mistake.
"He is relieved that he'll be able to go before the judge and explain precisely how he made that accidental wrong turn and ended up in the dilemma that he's in right now," she said.
“The case has drawn attention from several U.S. lawmakers and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who told CNN Wednesday that he spoke with Mexican authorities about it last week.
"We are working on determining whether or not certain evidence that has been presented is meeting the standard that's necessary to be able to hold that young Marine, and we're trying to find out exactly what the fact pattern is, but we are working on that," he told Chris Cuomo on CNN's "New Day."
Why hasn’t Sgt. Tahmooressi’s arrest by authorities in a country whose citizens flood the American border by the millions become an international incident with full-speed demands for his immediate release?
Proof exists from a 911 call with Sgt. Tahmooressi’s recorded words: “I crossed the border by accident.”
"I'm at the border of Mexico right now. And my problem is, I, I crossed the border by accident and I have three guns in my truck and they're trying to take my guns from me," the Marine told a 911 dispatcher in March. (CNN, May 28, 2014)
“In a recording of the call released by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, the Marine appears unsure of whether he crossed the border and exasperated that Mexican authorities are trying to take his weapons.
"There's nothing I can help you with then, sir," the 911 dispatcher says after learning he's in Mexico. "I do apologize. You're not on American soil anymore."
"I accidentally drove into Mexico with 3 guns ... a rifle (AR-15), a .45 cal pistol and a 12 gauge pump shotgun with no intensions (sic) on being in Mexico or being involved in any criminal activities," Andrew Tahmooressi wrote in a statement of innocence to Hunter, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.
"I have rights to all 3 weapons," he wrote. "They are under my name. ... Please help me."
Hunter is among several lawmakers who have petitioned for Tahmooressi's release.
"Mexico's Attorney General is in a position to deal with Andrew's case and ensure its quick resolution. ... It is necessary that the AG intervene and expedite proceedings at the very least. And so far there's been no validation from Mexico that Andrew didn't make a directional mistake at the border," Hunter said in a statement this month.
The voice on the other end of Tahmooressi’s 911 call may have been more than prescient by telling him: “I do apologize. You're not on American soil anymore."
Can many say what is American soil anymore?
And for the three personal firearms--”all bought legally in the U.S.”?
We’re not in Kansas anymore and are firearms still legal in Obama’s post-constitutional USA?
With little gaffers in Grade 2 drawing guns in clouds being written up by their own teachers, the line of legal gun ownership in the U.S. continues to be ever more blurred.
Meanwhile hashtag activism was dead in the water before it even became recognized.
All Twitter has done is provide the path of convenience and make-believe for politicians who so eagerly prey on the masses.
Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives
-- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
