Our View: Gossip site a poor reflection on Trumann

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
By MARK RANDALL, Democrat News Staff

There is an Internet website that is causing a lot of commotion in Trumann. We're not going to dignify it by mentioning its name here, but apparently a lot of people are reading it. What's worse, they are using the site to slander people's name and spread out and out malicious and untrue gossip.

An employee at this very newspaper fell victim to rumor-mongering last week. Not only was what was posted on the site untrue, it was hurtful and caused a lot of unnecessary grief and anguish.

We can see where such a site could be used for a lot of good. In fact, we posted a request on the site for stories about what people in Trumann collect. But did anyone bother to respond? Not a one. But boy people sure found time to go on there and deliberately gossip and try to hurt others with mean, viscious and crude remarks.

Think about it for a minute. Would you like to be the subject of gossip and rumors? Well, if you don't want people saying bad things about you, then why on earth would anyone go to an on-line bulletin board and say mean and rotten things about your friends and neighbors? What ever happened to 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it?'

Do we really need to know who the hottest teacher in Trumann is? Or gossip about a certain tv personality's engagement? There was even a posting on there about the new people at the Trumann Democrat. Well, if you wanted to know who we were and more about us, why don't you just come in and ask us.

This site isn't unique to Trumann. You can find the same kind of nonsense being posted on the site for Jonesboro and just about any other city in America. But what does this say about Northeast Arkansas and Trumann? Aren't we supposed to be known for our southern hospitality and friendliness? I thought we were all supposed to be good Christians? Well, going to church on Sunday and spreading gossip anonymously the rest of the time isn't very Christian to me and is a poor reflection on the people of Trumann.

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I already know what you're talking about and I completely agree.

-- Posted by iheartguitars83 on Sat, Oct 18, 2008, at 3:27 AM

While I agree with the heart of your article, I am wondering about the statement "I thought we were all supposed to be good Christians". What about the good people of the other religions that are, believe it or not, present in Northeast Arkansas? There actually are people of the Jewish and Muslim faith in our area (as well as those of no particular faith) and they should be included in "we" and "us" statements instead of being treated as outsiders, as in generally the case in areas known for "southern hospitality". I believe that statements such as these perpetuate bias and discrimination against folks of different backgrounds other than white southern Christians.

-- Posted by liveinjonesboro,workintrumann on Fri, Oct 24, 2008, at 7:26 AM

why can't livinjonesboro just leave the bias and discrimination stuff out of it and stay on the subject. and let a good story be a good story without starting a bunch of junk about being prejudice

-- Posted by proudfromtrumann on Mon, Oct 27, 2008, at 12:46 PM

i totaly agree to not spreading gossip about the people of your town my wife of 46 years is from your town and she is a fine upstanding person.as for as religions we are all children of the same creator yep you guessed it i'm muskogen native american and our religion is not a white man's religion but we too have the same creator and our life's journey in todays world is very simular to the white mans journey.so yes if we gossip we are putting down our brother or sister

-- Posted by OLIVERASIYO on Wed, Oct 29, 2008, at 8:23 PM