PRIVACY --BLOG OFF FOR BREAST CANCER

I like to think of myself as a relatively private person. I don't share my most personal thoughts with just anyone. I am a little more cautious than some about who I air my "dirty laundry" to. I am not sure why I am that way. Perhaps some of it is pride and some of it is fear of it being used against me. One area I am very private about is the goings on in the bathroom. For this reason (aside from them being dirty) I HATE using public bathrooms. I mean who wants to pee next to 5 other women. I don't, but sometimes you have no choice. I remember one time I was in the bathroom at a restaurant and the lady beside me had her small child in the stall with her. I would say he was probably 3 or 4. Before I know it this little head pops right under my stall, looks up at me, smiles and says HI!! Here I am mid tinkle with some strange child saying hello to me. My first two thoughts were this--please do not let your children crawl on a public bathroom floor that is just disgusting--and why are you laughing its NOT funny, its creepy. I don't care how young your child is its NOT funny. (I should note that I find this funny NOW, I didn't then)

I don't think I would survive one day in the limelight like celebrities. The other day I thought it was pathetic that our local news channel had to use air time to tell us Britney Spears had checked in to a local LA area hospital with a toothache and was seen leaving an hour later. Are you kidding me? While I don't give a hoot about Britney my point is still the same. Have we become that pathetic in our society that a person can't even go to the doctor without us all hearing about it? How about going to the grocery store, out for dinner. What about a simple argument with a loved one that turns into national news. I get that these people know what they are getting into when they choose the careers that they do. But it doesn't make it right. I still think it makes society in general sad when people cannot live their lives in peace (regardless of who they are) because we are so worried about what the hell they ate for breakfast. As a society we have decided that because they are celebrities they have given up their rights to privacy. Who really do we put them blame on for the invasion of privacy these people have to live with everyday. Some will say the blame lies within the paparazzi, some will say the writers and publishers of the magazines. I say the blame lies with the people who buy the magazines in the first place. If we don't buy them, then the companies who produce them have no business and the paparazzi have no one to sell their photos to. Maybe then they could get real and respectable jobs as photographers instead of stalking people who are just trying to go to the grocery store like the rest of us.

There are just so many issues surrounding privacy. There is the issue of work and personal emails. What rights should companies really have to access those personal emails before it becomes too much? How much say should a boss really have about what your write in your personal blog or journal? Thankfully since I work for myself I do not have to worry about such things, but I know it is a real concern for a lot of people. When I was looking for pictures to use for this post I came across a picture of T-shirt with the words Privacy is not a crime. At first I didn't really get it but the more I thought of it the more it began to make sense to me. It started to make me think about the effects certain things in our society has had on us and our privacy. My thoughts immediately went to 9/11. So many things have changed since that day. While I am thankful for most of these changes to make it safer for us to fly etc, there are some that make me really wonder. I remember the last time I flew on a plane they hardly gave us a glance as we were checking in and going through security. There have been times crossing the border to and from Canada where our ID has never been asked for. Yet if someones name is Abdul-Rahman it is automatic reason for the government or police to invade every aspect of that persons privacy and rights as a human being. It makes me shake my head and wonder what we are really trying to achieve. But that is a blog for another day.

Privacy is something that we all have the right to. It is our choice to exercise that right or not. But there are those people who take it upon themselves to make everyone else's business their own. It is those people that try and take away our freedom of privacy like it is some sort of moral obligation to keep them in the loop.

Please take the time to head around to the other blogs in our contest and check out their posts on this topic. Please also taken a few minutes to stop by and say hello to those who have left us so far. You will find all their links in my sidebar. And as always if you would like to make a donation to Courtney's fundraising effort please click on the banner above.