最新杏吧原创

I struggle now to remember exactly why. Maybe I wanted to see something on someone鈥檚 Facebook page and my wife was out of town, so I decided to set up my own account. But again, I can鈥檛 be sure.

I once asked an addict if she could remember why she had tried heroin for the first time. She gave me a blank look. No, she finally said.

At a certain point, why try to remember?

I did not feel a tremendous rush when I joined Facebook. If I joined. I might have just fiddled around for a bit on the computer, I have done just that when trying to establish an online account to automatically pay utility bills. I fiddle around until I think I might have accomplished my mission.

Sometime later, my bill comes in the mail.

After that initial foray into Facebook world, I backed off. Then, earlier this week, I received an email from Weatherbird cartoonist Dan Martin. Although he is well aware of my tech limitations, he sent me something with a link to Facebook. I hit the link and entered my password.

The screen responded: 鈥淲e disabled your account.鈥� (That was in boldface.) 鈥淲e reviewed your account and found that it still doesn鈥檛 follow our Community Standards on account integrity. You cannot request another review of this decision.鈥�

Still doesn鈥檛 follow. Can鈥檛 request another review. I felt like I had stepped into the middle of an argument that I had already lost.

Fine. Let them disable my account. But community standards?

In 1989, a flimflam man named Ralph Ingersoll started a newspaper in 最新杏吧原创, the 最新杏吧原创 Sun. He was financed by Michael Milken, the junk bond king. Junk bonds. There is something about that name that ought to make a person wary. The Sun was a tabloid, which is considered the most convenient newspaper for commuters.

Unfortunately, we had no commuters. People here drive to work. MetroLink did not come online until 1993.

The Sun rose and set in just seven months. Its brightest moment came when it covered the case of a young man who considered himself a land shark. He cruised up to a young woman at a bar and bit her rear end. She sued him. The Sun鈥檚 headline: 鈥淗e Bit Hers, So She Sued His.鈥�

Before the Sun even rose, in those exciting early days when it was just getting ready to publish, our Big Bosses had a staff meeting. Attendance was mandatory. The meeting was mostly a pep rally. 鈥淲e will meet this challenge!鈥� But the tone was cautionary. Winning would require great effort. 鈥淢ore tractors, less vodka!鈥�

You see, the Sun had an advantage. It had hired one of our top executives. The Big Boss let that sink in for a moment. 鈥淭hey know our plan,鈥� he said.

My friends and I were astounded. We had a plan? Other than throwing a newspaper together every single day, we had a plan?

That is the way I feel about Community Standards. We have some?

We used to, but that was long ago. We dressed up a lot. My friends and I are dressed up for class pictures in elementary school. White shirts, clip-on bow ties. We dared not remove those ties because we knew that our mothers would eventually see the class pictures. People dressed up to go to movies. They dressed up to go on airplanes.

In the time before my childhood, they even dressed up to go to baseball games. You can see that in the newsreels. And in the time before newsreels, they dressed up to go rowing in Forest Park. You can see that in the photos displayed outside the Boathouse.

People don鈥檛 dress up anymore. Not even in court. Jurors dress casually. We鈥檙e just glad they show up. Even defendants don鈥檛 always dress for the occasion. I remember one young man showing for his probation revocation wearing a T-shirt, 鈥淧ublic Enemy Number One.鈥� The judge inquired. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a band,鈥� the young man said. The judge extended the young man鈥檚 probation.

We used to have community standards for conduct, too.

Men didn鈥檛 curse in front of women or children. Recently, the president dropped an F-bomb live on television. Except it didn鈥檛 seem like a bomb anymore. Words have lost whatever shock value they once had. We鈥檙e conditioned to coarseness and tough talk.

How about that photo of President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis standing outside of a cage at Alligator Alcatraz? They鈥檙e laughing, yukking it up for the cameras. Cruelty is cool.

It appeals to the Bro culture.

Meanwhile, the gangsta culture is shooting it up. That problem used to be confined to certain unfortunate neighborhoods, but now it鈥檚 widespread. People are afraid to go downtown at night. I used to park in the newspaper lot and walk to Busch Stadium and back at night. I would hesitate to do that now.

Malls and street festivals are now venues for fights and shootings. The gangstas are emboldened.

Nobody knows what to do.

And somehow, in the middle of this mess, I have run afoul of Community Standards. I鈥檓 grateful to Facebook took for letting me know. And I assure them, I will not request a review of this decision.