Beware what you Twitter

Sarah Palin's rants about the media, whether true or contrived, still ring true to an overwhelmed society. In the age of snapshots of unmentionables made global in a split second, we are vulnerable to hearsay in an all new way. Are we spinning and creating icons and controversy out of nothing? And with one push of an iPhone button? I recall sending an e-mail and watching helplessly as it became a matter of intense controversy. It was nine years ago, and people still bring it up.

In the year 2000, in the innocent days of pre-9/11, I was just another student in another university class, doing what students do. One day I was shown a published poem that outright insulted my family, and so much so that my brothers wrote letters over it to defend themselves. The juxtaposition of specific tribal identity with child molestation was an unfair and damning image. Furthermore, the poem suggested that sexual abuse is protected by our racial group "as the oldest charter."

Now in most educated circles this is known as libel and slander. Libel and slander are not typically protected speech. I went to work on an e-mail.

I wrote to friends and family who I knew would be directly affected by this poem and suggested they respond so as to remove this horrible insult. And that was that. And then the Daily News called me two days later. Two days . . . about "the controversy."

My e-mail was a controversy?

Before a week was up, my name was printed in a front-page story in unflattering terms about how I set out to "attack" this lovely professor over her little poem. I have a strong belief in the free flow of ideas. As the mother of a wounded soldier I am keenly aware of the sacrifices that are involved so that we may enjoy and continue to enjoy our freedoms.

Freedom of speech is a right that I do not take lightly. I would rather live with an offensive work than deny a person's right to express. And my right to express meant I would express via e-mail my disgust with this offensive poem.

The backlash from this front-page news article was a tidal wave of angry voices polarized by historical hurts and racial tensions. I tried to get some control over the issue by interesting the university in public forums for educational racial dialogue. They withdrew. Instead, the situation spun into a mob cry of free speech and academic freedom. I was the evildoer who had criticized her professor's writing.

With great surprise I read the hot news about how I was "disruptive" in the classroom. It was astonishing. How could I have been so unaware of it? I teach at the university now, and can say that it has longstanding protocols to assist professors with "disruptive" students. Usually it means talking to the student first, the department chair second, and so on up the chain. No one talked to me. Only the media after I wrote my little e-mail, and only once.

Another student who spoke in my defense was harassed so badly that the two of us had to make pilgrimages to University of Alaska Fairbanks for the rest of the year to finish our master's programs. And we did. Meanwhile the media, exploiting the situation, was ablaze with the hysteria.

Even if you prick a bubble lightly, it will burst. Sometimes we know not what we begin when we provoke any discussion involving race. Even by a poem or by an e-mail.

It's time-consuming to hear all sides of a story. Gossip, tales, and character assassination suit fast food appetites these days, while truth falls to the wayside. Sometimes expression intentionally incites, or is created in ignorance and hurts someone. But words once used can't be recalled.

Speech can heal or inflame whether in art or politics. Racial hatred, cultural intolerance or religious bigotry may serve as bait to draw a crowd, but at what cost? Who is accountable?

Perhaps when we differ we can respect the right of those who are offended to complain, and that art, in the name of freedom, should remain. In the meantime, beware what you Twitter.

Diane E. Benson is a women's studies professor at University of Alaska Anchorage, and a writer of the new PBS documentary "For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska."