One Idiot’s Idea of ‘Silence and Respect’ at the Tomb of the Unknowns

Lindsey Stone, an employee of LIFE, Living Independently Forever, Inc., on an employer paid trip in October to Washington, D.C., posed for this photo next to Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. She then uploaded the photo to herFacebook page. LIFE on their Facebook pagedescribes their organization as “a nonprofit organization that provides supported independent living for adults with disabilities within its condominium communities on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.”The photo sparked a controversy and this is the statement LIFE posted in response to the picture:

“On Nov. 19 at approximately 6 p.m., we became aware that one of our employees had posted an offensive, inappropriate photograph on her personal Facebook page. The photo was taken at a national historic site in October by a fellow employee during a trip to Washington, D.C. attended by 40 residents and eight staff. The photo has since been removed from Facebook, and both employees have been placed on unpaid leave pending the results of an internal investigation.

The little darlin’ says she’s just bein’ herself:

Doncha love it when morons take pictures of themselves doing stupid shit, for posterity?  If little Miss Douche wasn’t aware of just how puerile and dumbassed her actions were, she is now. After the shit hit the internet fan, she and her photographer friend apologized and scrubbed their pages. Oh yeah, they were also fired from their jobs.

My buddy Jon at This Ain’t Hell, who initially broke the story, sums it up:

If there had been social media in the middle 70s, and a photo like this had been taken and spread around, it would have got guffaws and applause. Probably right up through the eighties, that photo would have elicited that response. The country had lost it’s way in the late sixties. People like John Kerry were heroes. Morals didn’t exist in the popular culture. Jimmy Carter awarded the folks who ran out on their responsibilities a pardon his first day in office. There were no consequences for bad acting.

What happened to Lindsey Stone this week had nothing to do with “blind adoration of the military”, it had to do with a line being drawn in the sand of the culture war. It turns out that some Americans are tired of the “Occupy” generation. Their outrage over this picture has been building in the last several years.

That sign is there for a reason.  It’s to remind people that Arlington Cemetery is a hallowed place of honor and respect for the fallen men and women who gave their lives for this country.  Anyone with even a speck of common sense wouldn’t need a reminder.  She forgot where the sign was posted while she was bein’ a rebel without a clue.