I ran across a horrific site as I was stumbling.
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I have been a member of stumble upon for some time now and have all in all had a very good experience there. As you all know with the article I posted about using stumble.
This morning I was stumbling along and came across a site that actually made me feel as if I was going to vomit. Most of the people who normally read my articles know my son is serving in the US Navy and is stationed in Kuwait as I write this.
The worry of a mother for the safety of her son is like nothing I have ever experienced in my entire life. Even though at the moment Kuwait is pretty safe, from one second to the next we just do not know if that safety will last or be torn away by the explosion of a car bomb.
It is all in Gods hands. My son and all the rest of the troops serving in the Middle East and being so far from home and the worry we as loved ones feel when they had to leave us behind is crazy!Will he return to me safe? Will the war end and everyone come home? What will the news bring for all of us today?My heart skips a beat every time I read about something bad that has happened over there and with each death of a soldier being reported.
I know before my son was deployed I took a trip to Mississippi to spend a week with him. I wanted to keep him as close to me as possible but in my heart I knew that he has grown into a man and has made a choice to serve his country and all of us as citizens. The one thing that flooded through my mind which I tried my damnedest not to think about is, maybe this would be the last time I see him. The last time I get to hold him in my arms and tell him I love him. The last time I see his smile.
I mention all of this because I want to set the stage for what I saw this morning as I was stumbling along. As with most of my stumbling there was no new posts sent from my friends so I decided just to random stumble ( which I do not believe I will do again)
What appeared on my computer screen was the worst thing I have ever seen. There in front of me was pictures of dead soldiers in Iraq. Boys laying there with their heads, legs and arms blown off. Half naked with their clothes ripped from their bodies. Some were wrapped in blankets and looked as if they were thrown away on the side of a road. Exposed for the world to see. The feeling of complete horror swept through my entire body as a numbness crept over me.
How and why would anyone take pictures like this and post them on the internet? Do they even consider who may see them? Don’t they realize that these boys are someones sons, or husbands? Don’t they realize or even care what the impact of this would be for the ones left behind from the tragedy of their loved ones deaths ???
When I finally got back to my senses I was appaulled by what had just happened and I did not know what to do. I tried to post a review of this page on stumble, but it stated they did not have a record of this page, my question is this, if they dont have a record of it how on earth did I stumble across it? Then I got mad and I wrote to the editors of stumble and told them of my feelings. I asked for a reply but till now still have not received one.
I feel so bad and hurt to think someone could be so heartless for these boys that gave their lives for each and everyone of us! I wonder how they would feel if someone took photos of their sons death and the after math? I don’t think they would be very happy either.
I know that writing and journalism has good and bad points, but to me this was just in bad taste and very offending and hurtful!
War is something none of us want to even think about, never mind sitting here at home and waiting for your loved one to return to you safely. There is no need to worry any more than we already do.
These boys died for US! Let their families remember them as they were and in one piece. There is no reason I can find to expose them to these pictures. Each one of these boys have a name, they had a life and they had someone who loved them. It is hard enough to deal with a death but to see horific pictures of them online is absolutly horrible!
Please let your friends and your family know of this terrible event. With all of us working maybe just maybe we can stop these people that take these pictures stop showing them online.
I believe there is a time and place for everything but in my book there is no place for these photos.
They fought for us with honor, let them die with the same honor!
March 26th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
The world is a sad place!! They are sick.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I really feel for you Linda. That must have been a terrible shock. It is disgraceful that things like that should appear on such a site. I agree with Glynis. It is sick.
Christine
March 26th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
That’s the trouble with the internet, it’s out of control.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
will thats a messed up thing for someone to do. Pictures like that should not be shared. That’s how I feel.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
That is awful, how awful for you, I agree with Christine and Glynis, it is totally wrong and sick.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
What a horrible thing for someone to do. What were they thinking? Sorry you had to see it. God Bless you and yours.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
My friend,
I am so sorry that you had to see this. It is horrific and disgusting how some people have profited or villianized our service men, who are just trying to do their jobs and protect the nation. It really doesn’t matter if you agree with the Iraq war or not; the men and women serving do not deserve anything less than our greatest respect. I too wonder how they would feel if their child or parent died at his/her job and their body was plastered all over the internet?
I don’t want to detract from your point- because this is awful. But, what is sad is that the horrific way some people treat Iraq soldiers is much better than the way they treated Vietnam soldiers. My father said that he was literally spit on when he returned. Local employers would not hire him simply because he served his country,
Do you have a link to the pg….so that I too can send my complaint?
God be with the men and women overseas, and bring lindalulus’ son home to us safe!
March 26th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Thanks to all of you and your comments. To you Jo no I did not keep the link to the site. I enclosed it on the mail to stumble but then got rid of it so no one else would visit the place.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Though I can understand how horrible that must be for you, I can understand the posting of such pictures. For those of us with no contact to warzones, the immediacy of it all and the horror of it can be very abstract. It’s all just numbers. I mean, I remember when I heard about 9/11, it didn’t mean anything to me. Sometimes people need to see these things to get their heads round it, like seeing pictures from Vietnam or Bergen Belsen or Hiroshima.
They really ought to put a warning on that sort of thing though, or even if there was a warning, people shouldn’t stumble individual pictures and bypass such warnings. They warn you if they’re going to show something nasty on the news, they ought to do it online too.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
How awful to have to see something as horrific as these pictures simply because some brain-numb person thought it was a good thing to post them on the internet!
I agree with you a thousand percent about the wrongness of this situation!
Yeah…SU didn’t have any record of this web page…right!!!!!
And I was born last night!!
March 26th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Thats disgusting and horrific! Thanks for making me aware!:)
March 26th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Some people are just down right mean and have no regard for people’s feelings. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families that have lost love ones serving our country. Thanks for pointing this out and I will look carefully while stumbling other peoples pages.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I am very sorry you had to see that, Linda. And God bless your son.
It’s probably not stumbleupon’s fault though- they are just an automated system that links to sites randomly. If they said they had no record of the site, it’s because no one had stumbled it before-
I have done that many times before- you cannot hit the thumbs down button on a site that has not been thumbed up at least once first- this keeps sites like the one you hit upon from becoming a part of stumbleupon’s system.
Maybe, as Emma CS also suggested, they did not do it out of any malice of the troops, but to let people see what war is really like, in which case, there should be a warning. Also, I don’t think they can depict dead soldier’s recognizable faces without the families permission.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Just say a prayer for peace in the world.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
This is very bad. I just hope people who did this stop doing it. All my prayers for the affected victims.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I’m so sorry that you had to see that too, Linda. That is just horrible. It’s a shame that people can be so disrespectful to all of the people who have loved ones and friends serving their country as well as to the people who worry about them.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:24 am
I am so sorry that you have to go through that ma`am.. but I am with Emma and Stephanie here.. we are far away from the war zone and most don`t appreciate the sacrifices made by our soldiers.. by getting this photos posted, the horrors of war are exposed and gets more feelings against the war.. if nobody reminds us of how horrible it is, we may not fully believe the heroism of our soldiers.. but then again, before showing the pics, a page should have a warning like `view at your own risk`..
March 27th, 2009 at 3:13 am
i feel for you… this is so wrong, how could people be so inconsiderate…
March 27th, 2009 at 6:23 am
I feel sorry for you seeing something you did not want to see.
BTW lindalulu I have sent you a private message on triond hope you get to see it soon.
Have a nice day
March 27th, 2009 at 11:46 am
well mom…lol….i agree and disagree….without the knoledge and the fact that the pictures show some civilians wouldn’t be able to grasp the idea of what war brings… i do agree that there should have been a warning page or a warning to a link the pic.. was on…but i also agree with the fact of the knoledge it brings….just feel bad for the families that happen to “stumble” across the pics..of there loved ones, dismembered and lifeless…well i love the article…love u mom..
March 27th, 2009 at 11:54 am
WOW….(lulu looks up) the comment above comes all the way from my son serving in Kuwait!!!!! I shared my article and my feelings with him today and he left me his feelings on the matter. Thank you Ethan for finding the time to comment on Moms rant!!! I love you, be safe for me…muah!
March 27th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Linda,I actually new a guy in the Air Force (Security Police)who had his own pictures of the bodies ripped to peices and he laughed about it,he was sick.I found a sight that was horrible by mistake as I was trying to find something on you tube when Sadam was hanged,it was sick.Unfortunately,down here,the same thing is happening daily in Mexico with the drug cartels.
March 28th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I can’t imagine what it feels like to have a loved one serving overseas – it’s something I’ve never experienced. But I do appreciate that seeing these images suddenly would be terribly shocking for someone in that position.
However, this reminds me of the initial reactions to WWI poets such as Wilfred Owen who were accused of destroying public morale through their sickeningly, some would say gratuitously realistic representations of their war experiences. And yet the people needed to have a better understanding of what was really happening at the front.
Today, more than ever, war is fought so far away that it is easy to become blase about it all. I would hate for soldiers to be sent blithely into harm’s way by people who had no understanding of what war really is. The politicians and the general public need to face up the reality, and I ask you to consider whether the posters of these images might have had that in mind, rather than a malicious intent.
When people like myself who have no real contact with servicemen are exposed to images of the devastating reality of conflict, it only serves to heighten our admiration of the soldiers who are risking their lives, and to demand higher standards of those who are sending them into those war zones.
Lindalulu, I hope and pray that your son comes home safe.
March 28th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
people are completly heartless and don’t think the impact one simple picutre has on someone they think oh yeh a dead body cool man they don’t think omg that is someone son,brother, uncle, friend, daddy people are a**holes nothing more to it
March 29th, 2009 at 12:44 am
I am so sorry that something like that came up on your screen. War is brutal and unfair, and it is horrible that someone would leave an image like that floating around without any warning to viewers of the content.
My prayers are with you, and I hope that you are able to make headway in getting the image removed.
March 29th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Words can’t describe how wrong and sick this is …
March 29th, 2009 at 11:22 am
People are so mean, maybe because they feel that in order to make them feel good about themselves they have to hurt others.
March 29th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
It is because of wars that images like that exist. If only our wars would end.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
While I understand that you didn’t wish to see those pictures, it’s the sad truth in the world. Just because you don’t want to “see” it because it’s “gross” or “upsetting” doesn’t mean it isn’t happening every day. Maybe you should stop complaining to StumbleUpon and start complaining to your government.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Merely ‘ending wars’ ignores the underlying cause. Eliminate the cause of war and the act of war disappears. Unfortunately that is a bigger task than just ‘calling the troops home.’
July 28th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
People are sick minded