Be Careful What You Tweet: Take it From Spike Lee
If you are like thousands of others you are probably tweeting, FBooking and signing petitions in the hope of seeking justice related to the Trayvon Martin shooting.
Celebrities are just like us and they take to social media when they feel motivated about such an issue. Spike Lee is a very passionate individual. Anyone who has seen just one of his films can gauge where his heart lies.
So he probably was the last person to imagine that when he retweeted what he thought was George Zimmerman's address in activist support, he was virtualizing the address to the home of an elderly couple, one of whom currently suffers from a heart condition. Not only were Spike Lee's followers inspired by the brilliant filmmaker's obvious call to action beyond the Twittersphere, they were inspired to physically manifest activism with concrete action that was downright squirrelly.
As a result of that wiry tweet, the elderly couple, Elaine McClain, 70 and her husband, 72, have been so horribly harassed that they can no longer tolerate staying in their home according to reports. They moved to a hotel. Can you just picture the wrong address being sent to around 250,000 Twitter followers, some of whom sent it to their followers, who sent it to their followers? Even if over three quarters of Lee's posse missed the tweet, all it would take would be 1/350 th of his followers to note the address then follow-up on their extreme ire with "presents," "gifts," hate mail, pranks and mayhem in a result which would be devastating for anyone. In this instance, there was hate mail and media hassle and who needs it, especially if the pigeon landed at the wrong house?
And of all things, the mistaken address was to older folks, one with a weakened heart? Worse than a nightmare. It has the stench of LITIGATION all over it implies some reports! However, anyone can make an honest mistake. The mix-up arose when someone did not properly identify the difference between, the McClains' son, William George Zimmerman (George W. Zimmerman) who briefly lived at their address in 1995 and the man named George M. Zimmerman (not yet charged with a crime) who allegedly shot and killed unarmed Trayvon Martin last month.
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