Stealing is stealing is stealing is stealing is stealing

Recently I have started to follow a good many authors. Several are extremely friendly and talk to me like I'm a real friend. At least two that I know live near me, I think I could be real friends with them. One of them encouraged me to enter a writing contest, although I am not sure she knows she did. I like to support new authors, I can only imagine how scary it must be and how you can easily slide into a funk if you don't take off right away, or start to think your work sucks.

Anyway, I friended several authors on facebook, and then several started friending me, then a few editors and publishers. Before I knew it I am in the middle of the author world. These are really amazing people. They put a part of their soul into each book. I know the book I am attempting to write has some very personal tidbits in it, but if you didn't know me personally you would never know what parts they are.

One of the things that recently came up in this circle of the publishing world is pirated books. It was wrong when music was being downloads illegally, the government went after 80 year olds and 6 year olds, charging outrageous fines. I remember Metallica had a huge backlash of some of their fans over pressing forward with lawsuits and pushing forward for criminal action to be taken. The same thing with pirating movies. So now the new thing is ebooks.

All of this got me thinking. Plenty of people said things like "I can't afford to buy all the books I want." "The publishers are at fault for making them too expensive." "The book stores jack them up when a book gets too popular and they know that everyone wants to read it while it is popular" and just can't wait to read it now, or go to the grocery store and get it 25% off.

And this is what I have decided. I have never illegally downloaded any music or movies. I wouldn't do it with a book. I get free books aplenty on Amazon, all legal like! I wasn't raised to steal, and this is stealing. So why do people do it. Well my answer would have to be.... because we live in hell. This is it. There are those of us that live to add something a little better to the world. Put a smile on others faces, remind them of love or excitement in their youth. Maybe we just want to let someone know that they are thought about kindly, or thought about at all.

Then there are the ones that don't care. They are more concerned in how to get theirs. No matter what. They suck the life out of what ever they can and usually that means they get what they want, when they want, and damn the consequences. They don't care that someone put their lives into something wonderful, they only want their immediate gratification, and certainly don't want it to be taking money out of their pocket. SO if they can support others that do the same thing, immediate gratification by cheating to supply others with immediate gratification, they all seem to find each other.

The question then becomes; If a person has in the past participated in an action that is wrong, be it illegal in the truest sense or what would be considered open for "civil action." They know they did wrong. Everyone makes mistakes.

But at what point do you remember that we all have a moral compass, we all have the inner whispers of what is right. Do you become the person you want to be? Or..... Do you remain the person you have settled to be?

I remind myself everyday to Remember The Person I Want to Be. I don't want to be a cheater, liar, or a thief. I don't want to be a mother that teachers her children that is allowed in even the smallest degree.

And I'm sure invairably someone will put that on a plaque or a t shirt and tell the world they came up with the saying "Remember the person you want to be." Nope it was me, I've been telling myself and friends that for years now. But it is so much easier to steal. (sarcasm)