Due to the increased paranoia of my co-workers...

I have been suspended from Krogers 832, indefinitely, on July 6, 2007. For writing in my blogs on my myspace. The link is www.myspace.com/whodey69. This is not an explicative filled blog. This is a simple statement. I was under the impression that I was excercising protected rights. I was wrong.

"The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was adopted in its original form on September 17, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

"Freedom of the press (or press freedom) is the guarantee by a government of free public press for its citizens and their associations, extended to members of news gathering organizations, and their published reporting. It also extends to news gathering, and processes involved in obtaining information for public distribution. In developed countries, freedom of the press implies that all people should have the right to express themselves in writing or in any other way of expression of personal opinion or creativity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights indicates: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers""

"Freedom of speech is the concept of being able to speak freely without censorship. It is often regarded as an integral concept in modern liberal democracies."

I did not make these blogs, or pass these blogs out at Kroger. I've never even given the link to someone while on Kroger property, or time. I simply wrote them on my myspace and left it at that. Maybe it was offensive to someone, maybe it made someone uncomfortable. Okay then, don't read it. I will not apologize, or tuck my tail between my legs. I will stand proud beside my work. There is nothing wrong with expressing your feelings online. Some people write in a journal. Some people gossip with other people. Sometimes people just keep it all bottled up. I blog it. And people like to read my blogs. If you don't beleive me, look at all of the comments I get. They're a hit. I simply report what happens to me, and others, in my daily life. I put my own humurous spin on it, and I write it in the language I speak. It's my personal choice to speak that way, as I see nothing wrong with my language, and I don't view any word as a "cuss" word.

I never allowed my blogs to interfere with my work at Kroger. I always came to work, and respected my managers and co-workers, regardless of my personal feelings or what I've said in blogs. I had a job to do, and I did it. I dealt with my personal problems elsewhere. I graduated high school in 2005, and assumed that people in the work force could be mature enough to handle things as adults. I was wrong. Instead of simply ignoring what I read, they continued to read it, then cried to management as if they were the Principal or Dean of a high school. I maintained a proffesional relationship with everyone, regardless of my feelings. I put the customer, and the company before my personal vendetta or feelings against or for another person.

So, I stood around doing my job, and the immaturity of others won over as management decided to pull me from my job, and spend a half an hour meeting with me, before suspending me, for speaking on my time, on my website, completely away from Kroger. But apparently the freedom of speech, and freedom of the press do not matter to my company. They've suspended me, and probably intend to fire me. I've been loyal to that company for 4 years so far, and had intentions of riding it until the wheels fell off. But someone was uncomfortable, so they felt the need to punish me for my private life. What's next? The firing of homosexuals for being gay? How about someone get suspended for not liking Hillary Clinton?! That sounds like it could work. Maybe because my car is in a public place, they could fire me for having a book they don't like in my front seat.

This is garbage, and a violation of my rights. Not to mention a waste of resources. Kroger has nothing better to spend it's time and money on than investigating and firing people for writing on their myspaces. There were no physical threats, just personal opinions, facts, hear-say, and history. So it begins. The silence of free speech is here. Congress wants a "fairness" bill to mediate radio, people get fired for voicing their personal opinions. Where does it stop? There is no end in sight.