Shame On You!

As a new Army Mom I think one of the first things you realize/learn is to stay away from the news (oh, and YouTube videos...yuck!).  LOL...it usually just causes "UA"...unnecessary anxiety (which is not good for my OCD or as my kids call it...CDO!) Not to mention it has been known to cause a few bad dreams and nightmares every now and then.  (Oh come on now, you Army family members KNOW what I'm talking about! As strong as we are, there's some things we just have to take in small doses!)  I've been pretty good about this if I do say so myself.  I've learned the art of deciphering the real reality from the media sensationalized reality, and if all else fails I've learned to just tune it out or turn it off. That is until this weekend when I came across an article from FoxNews.com on how our nation's enemies are using social media networks like Facebook and blogs (yes, much like this one) to get information they can use against our soldiers.  Seriously?  That's pretty low to use someone's little ole family blog to try to get information that could be potentially damaging to our soldiers. So much for freedom of speech :S
I was taking this with a grain of salt until a post from a friend and fellow army mom told a story of how a gal from Pakistan contacted her on Facebook and told her she  knew a lot about her and had some information on her son and wanted to know more.  She said she didn't realize he had left to BCT and wanted his address.  My friend looked her up on Facebook (see kids....the best of moms know there are times that "Facebook Stalking" is warranted  ;) and saw that she was from Pakistan.   At first my friend didn't give it much thought as her son had done some traveling out of the country before he joined the Army.  My friend did not give her the information and contacted her son to let him know. (Again, so thankful our boys have their cell phones back!!)  He told her she was right in not giving this gal any information and that there is no way she would "know a lot about her).  Crazy!  After hearing this, I thought...hmmm....let's check the stats on our little soldier blog.  (There's an "audience" link you can click on to see where in the world people are viewing your blog from.)  This makes it quite exciting to think your little blog has been halfway around the world...and then some!  When I looked at the stats I saw "hits" from around the world in places such as Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  I'd like to think maybe this was from fellow soldiers, or at the very least far away friends of our U.S.A.  Now I'm beginning to wonder.  Isn't that sad!  Something as simple as sharing one of the greatest achievements of your child with your family, friends, and others that are going through the exact same journey just became a source of anxiety!! And yes...I'll admit I did have horrible dreams last night.  And then, well, I just got mad.  I'm mad that something I'm not even really sure of could make me that worried.  I'm mad at the feeling of possibly being stalked and, in a way, violated.  I'm mad that something valued and precious to me could possibly be used for something deceitful, corrupt, and horrible.  I'm mad that you (whoever YOU are) made me feel frightened, timid, and small.  I guess I'm mad that I felt something was taken away from me.  That's it! Shame on you...whoever you are. Shame on YOU!