Friday, April 15, 2011

Equal Rights

When did we forget that all people are created equal?

Regardless of social standing, race, beliefs, economic status, location... we were all born the same, we all have the same basic needs. I don't care who you are, what you do, where you live, how much is in your checking account. Every one of us is a human being, and deserves to be treated as such.

Why is it, then, that people treat each other so poorly? Your boss treats you disrespectfully... The receptionist at your doctor's office is rude and uncaring... Driving is dangerous because everyone thinks their own destination is more important than the safety of those around them... There are so many examples to be found in daily life of how people are wrong to each other.

This is my clarion call. I charge each of you to be better to your fellow humans. Each of us was daddy's girl or mama's little man at some point. Each of us was a wide-eyed child, who didn't know the cruelty of the world.

That cruelty doesn't have to be. If each of us treats each other as we would want to be treated, the world would be a better place. All it takes is a little respect, a little kindness.

Friday, April 1, 2011

sorry in advance

I'm sorry, but I need to rant a little.

I've been using Yahoo mail for more than ten years. I've never had a problem before, but lately Yahoo seems to be under the impression that I am a spammer.

I use two different Yahoo accounts. One is for emailing my friends and family, and the other is for business correspondence, like receiving bills. Pretty innocuous, if you ask me. But Yahoo thinks I have some kind of ulterior motive in messaging my family.

Let me tell you what I told the Yahoo customer care people:

"This is ridiculous!

"Yahoo seems to think I am a spammer. More and more frequently, I have been asked to fill out a Captcha before my email will be sent. Today, as icing on this cake, my message was refused, and I was given this message:

"'The message you composed has not been sent. Such message blocks are usually caused by sending a message whose content has triggered our spam filters, or by sending to too many recipients at a given time. We encourage you to carefully review the recipient list and contents (including URLs therein) of your message before attempting to resend it.'

"What's really ludicrous about this is that I was emailing my SISTER regarding her recent hacking. Amazing... Yahoo will stop ME from 'spamming' my SISTER, but will not stop my sister from having HER Yahoo account HACKED!

"I use this email account primarily for emailing my family and friends. Therefore, most of my messages go to the same people, each with 1-8 of the same recipients. I have been using Yahoo mail for more than 10 years, with different user names, and have always emailed in this fashion.

"Is this suddenly suspicious behavior? Is emailing my friends and family going to be a problem? Because let me assure you, if you do not have a solution for me regarding your obstacles to my emails, I will be more than happy to terminate more than a decade of loyalty and use a different email host."

I think the problem they have with me is that I email the same person a few times a day, or I send emails to the same group of three people (my mom, my dad, and my sister) repeatedly. I guess I just don't have enough friends for Yahoo's standards; maybe they'd leave me alone if I sent emails to hundreds of people instead of less than a dozen.