Editorial: Pausing to think is best policy

Pebbles Hooper is one person who should have thought before tweeting inappropriate comments.

Sometimes people confuse saying the first thing that comes to their mind with freedom of speech.

However, the latter is usually associated with standing up for what one believes in while the former can simply be an excuse for the nasty, mean or ignorant to mouth off.

Recently we had two examples of people who said things in the belief that it was acceptable or even edgy. Once the words came out of their mouths, they suddenly realised that, at best, they looked uncharitable but, at worst, mean and uncaring.

Take the case of Pebbles Hooper - a young Auckland "socialite" most certainly born with a silver spoon firmly in her mouth. When she tweeted that it was "natural selection" that caused a mother and her children to die of poisoning in their house, I am sure she felt that everyone would agree with her. Actually no, most of us have a least one empathetic bone in our bodies and would feel sorrow for the unnecessary loss of life.

The second example involves Nick Kyrgios, an Australian tennis player of Greek and Malaysian origin, who was booed in his fourth-round defeat at Wimbledon to Richard Gasquet when it appeared that he wasn't trying in the third game of the second set.

Make no mistake, Kyrgios behaved appallingly and acted like John McEnroe in his heyday. However, he did not deserve the insults that Australian Olympic legend Dawn Fraser levelled at him when she said stars like him should "go back where their parents came from" if they could not behave.

She had every right to criticise his behaviour but not his right to be an Australian.

It is easy to be judgmental but more often than not showing compassion and kindness is better in the long run.