Saturday, March 12, 2011

It's Not Just Diamonds That Are Forever

When I was in high school, the joke was, "What's the difference between love and herpes? Herpes is forever." Those were innocent days--AIDS was just getting started, and herpes was the big bad. It seems almost quaint today, no?

So now we have diamonds and two STD's that are forever. Know what else is forever? Your past:
Tera Myers, ex-porn star, loses teaching gig in St. Louis, after student discovers her X-rated past

I understand that you can't really have an effective teaching environment if kids can find porn videos of their teachers online. Still, part of me thinks this teacher is, somehow, being dealt a bad hand:
Time was, anyone who needed to make a fresh start in life could simply find a new town to live in and, if needed, a new name to go by. Your past was truly the past, and a lot less inclined to follow you around than it is today. But now the eraser is gone. Information persists not because we deliberately make it persist, or even because we want it to, but simply because the information infrastructure we have created is so incredibly good at doing what we designed it to do.
Yes, she made choices that, in hindsight, weren't good. That doesn't change the suckiness of her situation. I do have a certain amount of sympathy for her.

2 comments:

Doug said...

Like it has been said, she did nothing illegal, and has (seemingly) turned the page on that chapter in her life, and regrets it. Should that preclude her from teaching? By no means. Are people offended by porn? Of course. I am offended by abortion, but it is legal, and that doesn't preclude one from working at a preschool, right? So, just because some horny boy finds out she had sex on camera doesn't mean she's a bad teacher. If anything, why not use her as an example of making a fresh start and making something out of your life.

mrelliott said...

And yet, we can still give a voice, not to mention, pay, pension, and benefits to a former President who had a sordid affair while he was in public service to the American people.

What unfair standards we have in our world.