Sending Mother's Day Flowers From Heaven

Most mothers, this time of year, will be taken out to dinner or sent flowers. It is the American tradition.

I can not even count the Mother's Day presents I have sent, over the years, or the ones I have hand made. The crayola stained cards are now memories which were once used to accent magnets on a refrigerator.

But this year, one person will not have the same opportunity that most of us take for granted. The only thing which remains now is a picture of a man who might still be alive today had it not been for negligence and cruelty.

The year was 2008 and the month was November. His name was Abraham Biggs. Nobody knows exactly why he did the things he did that day or the reasons why.

The only thing which is certain is the fact he set up a live webcam, told members of a forum he intended to commit suicide, induced too many drugs in one sitting, and later died of a drug overdose.

I say "later" because the camera feed rolled continuously for 12 hours. The hits continued to accumulate but nobody did anything.

Viewers of the website did nothing. The person hosting the website did nothing. In fact, some forum members left mean spirited messages and actually encouraged him to finish the act while others were busy contemplating whether it was the real deal or not.

By the time the police arrived, Abraham was obviously unconscious on his bed.

Would this man still be alive today if it were not due to his involvement with the Internet? Some say he was troubled and it would not of made a bit of difference.

I beg to differ however.

I've seen the cruelty which goes on on Internet forums. I've seen the name calling and the bullying when people don't say the right things or do not fit in.

I've seen what happens when someone goes to the police and tries to file a report for Internet harassment.

The first question the police officer asks is if you have had any monetary loss. The next thing he says is that since the Internet isn't regulated there is really nothing he can do about it.

There is currently no data base, in the United States, which gives accurate statistics regarding Internet crimes.

If a person can't even fill out a police report and get an honest answer back regarding harassment, there is no way to measure statistics for data which they say doesn't exist.

Something with the system is seriously broken.