There's only one picture of GWB I enjoy. This one. GWB says, "FUCK OFF!"
If there is one thing that pisses me off more than ignorant people, it is people who plagiarize someone else's work. Today, I was harmlessly browsing google looking up words and stuff when I come across a blog. At first I was intrigued because the blog belonged to someone I used to be best friends with back in high school (those were the days, huh?) I decided to read it and see how his life was going and since I know he is a Democrat I wanted to see who he was voting for. I saw Hillary Clinton's name and I was proud because although he and I weren't friends anymore (my bad?) at least he knew who the right choice was for President. Then, I started seeing my words under his name. It wasn't even a sentence of mine, IT WAS MY WHOLE FUCKING BLOG. Mind you, I posted the blog two days prior to his posting of it, and it is written in my style (anyone could tell you that if they read it) so I was really sort of taken aback when I read it.
Plagiarizing someone's work is like stealing their boyfriend/girlfriend from them and having mad animal sex with them in front of the person and laughing about it the whole time. I felt a sense of ultimate betrayal when I read the post because although he and I had our different lives now, he was still "keeping tabs" on me and most importantly, stealing my work. I think it is great that he found it intriguing enough to use, but the least I asked of him was to put my name on the work. Unfortunately, he deleted the post and it's no longer in his name...but what kills me is that it was for a period of time. What if someone thought, "wow, he is witty" with the words that (I) wrote and yet he took the credit for it? Ah, I guess that is what happens when you are a writer. You come across those people who cannot find the right words themselves to use so they use yours instead. Inevitably, sometimes we need to learn from high school by saying, "if you copy another's work, you fail."
I hope anyone who reads this understands how hard a writer works to develop something that will get someone hooked. It is not everyday that one of the biggest minority battles in the US happens, and for me to put my perspective out there is a big step. I guess being copied from rather than scoffed at is better than nothing, but I don't see why people can't just write what they are feeling rather than using another's words. I feel like having to attribute quotes from people in high school for those meaningless papers we had to write set us all back because we had to conjure up ideals from someone else's thought process. What good does that do anyone?
I'll be the first one to admit that back in school days, I would occasionally cheat on a test or homework, but I would NEVER copy someone's entire paper and put my name on it. I think that is one of the most selfish things someone can do. I cannot tell you how furious I am that someone who I used to call "a friend" would sit here and have the nerve to copy my work! I am disgusted, and even more so, I am appalled. I guess the world in which we live in is one where we have to take the good with the bad, but I am not going to stand for someone stealing my words - NO WRITER SHOULD. If you are so simpleminded that you cannot find your own thoughts to say about something - DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL. I take back what I said, I am not at all flattered, I AM FUCKING PISSED. I don't understand this at all. Seriously, What the fuck?
Anyone out there reading this who has done this to someone should be EXTREMELY ashamed of themselves. I think it just shows how much idiocy is out there in the world today...and especially copying something word for word. (Except you had the guts to take out bitch and cunt because you didn't want to be known for using that - real smart.) In the educational world you would be kicked out of school for pulling shit like that, and you think you can be a teacher? RIGHT.
I just don't know what to say anymore. I am purely speechless. Is this where the educational system in America has led us to? Are we doomed to do nothing but duplicate everything we have ever written because we are too small minded to think of our own ways of explaining things? My answer is FUCK THAT.
As a writer I refuse to let my work be taken and reproduced without my permission...especially when words are changed. I hope all of you writers out there do the same. It's time for all the other people to write what THEY think in their OWN words.
A Word To The Wise: DO YOUR OWN WORK.
