From Southwest Atlanta to Abbottabad, Osama Humor, Analysis, Calls for Peace on the Net

The growth of social media has put a new spin on neighbors and co-workers sharing a joke or opinion about the hottest news of the day.

Before the Internet, the backyard fence or office water cooler were the meeting places for exchanging ideas about local, national and world news.

Today, those platforms have been replaced by the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube—new media gathering places that allow "neighbors" to share video, images, comments and more.

The greater Cascade community's sharing of information and humor about Sunday's news of the killing of Osama bin Laden is the latest example. But, the community sharing doesn't end in southwest Atlanta.

The original tweets of the Abbottabad IT consultant Sohaib Arhar (known as @ReallyVirtual on Twitter) who ended up breaking the news about the Osama compound raid starting with his "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)" tweet on Sunday, May 1, have brought "neighbors" together from around the world.

It turns out Arhar has a great sense of humor and just reading his impromptu FAQ page on his website, http://www.reallyvirtual.com/faq/ may have helped unite some people from different faiths and cultures and, who knows, possibly even improved our increasingly complicated U.S. and Pakistan relations.

Last, but not least, have been the calls for peace and the regret of taking the life of any human, even one who is considered responsible for killing thousands on September 11 in New York City. Cascade resident Delores Turner send this Voices for Creative Nonviolence essay to Cascade Patch Wednesday evening: http://vcnv.org/category/afghanistan.

So, in light of all of this, Cascade Patch is posting highlights of humor, opinion and developments circulating on social media and e-mail today. Of course, as always,  we welcome additions from readers in the comments section or under "Contribute" at the bottom of our home page.

Share your views with Cascade Patch. Join in "the conversation!"