These, definitely.
Personally, I would have just one thing to say to this woman, and it's something I often feel moved to say to children: "This is not a playground."
I am so frigging tired of self-centered asshats just doing whatever they want, wherever, without the slightest regard for the place, the context, or the people around them. Some people just have to act up and act out and play the fool everywhere they go -- in cemeteries, national monuments, churches, workplaces, high traffic public spaces where they make other people have to maneuver around their idiotic antics, train stations where they could get killed by being careless (oh, what a dreadful thought). There's an obvious selfishness in such behavior. In my opinion, there's also a less obvious passive-aggressiveness, a desire to annoy, to dare someone to challenge them on it so they can be even more obnoxious in putting down those who disapprove.
There's another thing I might say to this woman, which I've actually said to at least one extremely ill-behaved child. "I'm not your mother, I don't love you, and I don't think you're cute."
And something I would never say to any child: "Grow the fuck up, you self-absorbed, immature moron."
If I was her employer, I'd definitely put her on disciplinary notice for reflecting badly on the company -- if I didn't just fire her without cause, just to be rid of her. One thing's for sure, even if she doesn't lose her job, I doubt she'll be on a promotion track after this. Who would ever trust her with more responsibility?
Yes, this. This isn't a teenager. This is a woman who appears from her photo to be at least in her 30s, who holds what appears to be a job in which she is responsible for the care and well-being of others. She really should be well beyond the "Hurh hurh, I'm being disrespectful cuz that's awesome funny," stage.
Were she sixteen on a school trip, I'd be annoyed, but not to the same level. She's not. She's an adult, and an adult should be beyond that mentality. If she thinks that's funny, what other crap is she pulling in public places, with no consideration for any of the other people with whom she shares that space/the planet?
And if she thinks it's all waycool 'challenging authority' to ignore or disobey signs, I can only hope she wasn't driving the bus. Or doing any other work involving safety regulations.
Another issue that I don't think has been emphasised nearly enough, is the nature of her work. She works with people with learning disabilities. If this is an example of what she finds hilarious and mockable, how can she be trusted with the residents?
How long before she posts 'humourous' photos about them? Or, indeed, suckers them into doing something 'funny' for her to post alà 'bumfights'?
If I can think this, and I've been thinking this from the first couple of posts, I'll bet her bosses are. I'll bet the families of the residents are, as well. Which makes her continued employment there a liability for the company.
Fire her. Lots of people with better judgement out there.
Yeah, I thought of that, too. What is she teaching those people about proper behavior? What is she teaching them about respect? I certainly wouldn't be pleased if, for example, one of my daughters' teachers posted a photo of themselves doing that, because what does it say about them? (Note: I'm not comparing the adults she works with to children, I'm just pointing out that she seems to be in a position of some authority/responsibility for these people; she was apparently there to help and/or supervise them, which means her behavior should have been modified accordingly.)
What this woman did was inexcusable because of where she was.
Let me illustrate this by trying to drive home to her defenders where she WASN'T.
She wasn't blithely strolling through Central Park in NYC. She wasn't chowing down a chilli dog tghat she didn't just buy from a Central Park vending cart. She wasn't grinning at a street performance clown who wasn't juggling colorful balls, and she wasn't ignoring the two teenagers who weren't making out on a nearby park bench. No, that's not where she was. And she also didn't suddenly notice a sign which wasn't reading "KEEP OFF THE GRASS. And then in a sprit of mischief and spontaneous creativity, she did NOT decide to have her BFF snap a photo of her on the grass right next to the sign.
No.
That's not where she was.
She was in a cemetary.
You don't buy a chilli dog in a cemetary.
You don't smirk at juggling clowns and horney teenagers in a cemetary -- because there are no clowns and horny teenagers in cemetaries.
I'm only quoting part of your (awesome) post, because yeah. The fact that it's Arlington and the Tomb of the Unknowns makes the extra-bad, but it would be abhorrent behavior in ANY cemetery.
However, given all we have to go on is this photo and not a clear context for her intent--I still see a huge public outcry and the ruining of a person's life for one dumb lapse in reason as an over reaction. I won't be picking up my torch and pitchfork for this one.
I agree re free speech etc., but we DO have some context for the photo. When people expressed their displeasure about it, she said, basically, "Hey, man, we're just being our douchebag selves because that's so funny." (I don't recall the exact quote, but I remember specifically she said "being our douchebag selves.")
Sure, she has a right to be a douchebag, but I have a right to think an adult woman should be beyond the stage where she thinks, "Ohh, we'll be douchebags, look, I'm a douchebag, isn't that adorable? Don't you love me for it? Ha ha!"
Imagine, seriously, the mindset that says, "You know what would be awesome? Let's go act like douchebags at the Tomb of the Unknowns! Everyone will love that and think we're cool!"
Her intent was to act like a douchebag because that's hilarious. Her intent in posting the photo was to show people how hilarious her douchebaggery is and make them all think she's Very Very Cool.
People who behave that way online are called trolls.
Which sucks.
I'm wondering, though, how many people think it's wrong to out a racist, but it's fine to hound a company into firing a woman for a crass photo.
Ehh...I don't think the company should be hounded into firing her, necessarily, again (though, if they do fire her I can't blame them; presumably they have access to her Facebook page and could have seen that without all the brouhaha, and as others have pointed out, this is a woman in a position of responsibility over people who need help, and presumably part of that job entails/should entail being a role model of some sort). I'm not a fan of the whole "Start a Facebook page to fire this woman!" thing, at all. (Honestly, I'm not a fan of the "So-and-so put this on the internet, so we have the right to attack him/her all over the place by name and call for his/her head!" thing, either.)
But she is
an adult. There's a difference, IMO, between a teenager who says or does something stupid, and an adult who actually thinks what she did was funny. A teenager is not expected to behave like an adult. An adult is.