As I arrive at work I go through my daily routine. I get to the building around 5:00 am every morning. Sometimes earlier and some days a few minutes later. I am naturally a morning person, everyone else in my family are not. The biggest advantage of getting an early start on the day is the traffic is light. I have the building’s digital signage set to turn on automatically at 5:00 am so I try to enter the building to see the TVs power up. Some days I make that goal but most days I don’t. I have good friends and family who were the best of the best Army attack helicopter pilots in the world and one of the things they say is Time on Target plus or minus 30 seconds. When you have that tight of a schedule, well, that makes you the best. The best I can do is Time at Work is plus or minutes 30 minutes. When you must drive Houston traffic, that is pretty good, just not the best of the best like my friends are.
On the way to my desk on the fourth floor I go into some of the conference rooms that are on the path and do a quick walk through to see if anything needs attention. I power up the room’s computer so that when those I support show up, they don’t have to wait for the computer to boot. I arrive at my desk, take the laptop out of my backpack, unlock the drawers and set the desk up for the day. While I wait for my laptop to boot up, I take the first sips of coffee. Boy, is that always good. The lights in the building don’t turn on until 6:00 am so my first hour is in the dark, which I prefer. All is quiet.
Once the laptop is ready for the day, I tunnel into the digital signage computers to reboot those. There are two computers that drives that system and occasionally they will install updates while they reboot. This time of day only the guards and a few early birds see those updating and booting up on the building's TVs. I go through my emails and respond to all of those. Most are scheduling conference rooms and others are business administrative related. Once all of that is done, then I check out the news, most of which is depressing to see how our country is digressing. I check the hurricane page to see what we need to be concerned about. Next, I check on my website www.bigdoggarage.com where I have my car projects and other things such as some of my writings. That website is getting so big, I think it is over 180 pages. Finally, I go to Facebook but today it will not log in. What is the deal? Is says, “If we find that your posts or comments didn't follow our Community Standards, your account will remain disabled. We're always looking out for the security of people on Facebook, so while your posts and comments are reviewed you can't use Facebook.” What??? I think back to what I posted the day before. I cannot think anything I posted that was against their standards.
Let’s see, I posted what I read in my daily devotional. There was the meme of the verse from the song “How Great Thou Art”. I wrote a couple of short things about what I did or experienced recently. I posted some cool car pictures. I think I made fun of Fords. (Never really cared for Fords, but I do respect some of the Mustangs) I posted some cool pictures of military aircrafts that I find online. I posted some picture of my dog and cats. I think I shared a post from the International Space Station.
I decide to ready through the ‘community standards’ to get a clue of why my account is locked down. They say to do not post anything that incites violence, racial, bullying or hate. I know I did not post anything like that. It went on to say, do not post firearms for sale unless you are a brick-and-mortar business. I know I did not post that. Do not post anything that is illegal drug related. I know I did not post about that either. Do not post anything that is scam related. I know I did not post that either. So, I ask that they review my case, but I never hear back. They will not tell me what it was I posted or provide any avenue for defense.
It was either something about God, Cars, Airplanes, a funny meme or pictures of my dog or cat. I have no idea since all they did was slam the door and went silent.
I have accounts on other social media, so I log into Instagram. I rarely if ever log into that account so it was a learning curve for me. I have a few friends there that are also friends on Facebook, so I created a post announcing that I was in FB Prison. I get a few responses. The good thing about logging into that account is I see a friend there that has abandoned Facebook for the same reason that I am here.
Later that day I tell my wife about being locked out of my FB account and I took a screenshot of what it says and text it to her. She creates a post on her account with that screenshot and says that I am in FB Jail. There were a multitude of responses that she showed me. I was glad to see the love and care for my situation. That evening I get a text from the Pastor of our church who recently retired that says, “So you are in Facebook Jail? I have done jail ministry in the past so if you need anything….” Reading that made my day!
I check my Facebook account at least once a day to see if I have been freed, but no luck. I had heard that social media targets those of us who are Conservatives with “Fact Checking” and banning for periods of time. I now know that is true. I wish I could hear why I was locked out, but I guess it is the norm these days for those of us who believe in our Constitutional rights of free speech. I love God the creator of all things, I love my country, I love my family, I love my job, and I love our freedom to express ourselves and I will not change for any political reason.
If I had to guess why I am locked out, I would guess it is because I make a stand for my Faith. Standing up for your faith these days is frowned upon by those who are not Christians. I have no hate or animosity against anyone for what they believe or what culture they descend from, only love for my fellow man as the Bible directs us to. If that is in fact why I am in FB Jail, then I will be in jail again for I will not stop standing up for my Faith in God through Jesus Christ.
I agree with and support the Facebook Community Standards as they are written, but I believe that is used as a tool to silence free speech. There is not one thing that I can think of that I did to violate the standards as they are written. I wish we could defend ourselves but, since I am a Conservative Christian, they will not let that happen.
As for now, I am locked out of my Facebook account until Labor Day. I will spend the time I usually spend on FB in the mornings catching up on my writings. I will miss my friends but will see them again when I am allowed back on Facebook.