Rear View Mirror needed please.

There is a very popular saying and I'm not sure who I should credit, it is "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" and it seems it should be added but keep looking behind you.  In today's world we have the ability to video tape from our phones, take pictures, and send information via the web or by email and this information can spread like wild fire.    A Navy Captain was recently demoted due to a video he produced and played to help morale for his crew during a long deployment.  There are so many sides to consider, that I don't even know where to begin.

Part of me wants to say that the court of public opinion should not judge the military and their unique way of handling things, however, there have been several instances when important issues were not being dealt with by the military until they were made public.    The bigger picture in all of this, is should we be held accountable for a bad judgement call 4-5 years after the incident?  Let's assume that the Captain was disciplined in some manner at that time.  Is it fair to have a very bad judgement call pop back up on television and affect his position now?

Let's assume that all of us evolve into a better person based on mistakes we have made in the past and the lessons we have learned from those mistakes, shouldn't we be able to move on with some confidence that it is behind us?   How do we make our children, teenagers and young adults aware that pictures, videos and on-line postings could haunt them for the rest of their life?  We either need to develop some tolerance for stupid mistakes or create an extremely paranoid society.

In my opinion, celebrities and politicians have pursued careers that mean constant judgement and being haunted and stalked by the media in one way or another.  The rest of us are simple human beings, living our lives, making mistakes along the way without the expectation of being judged due to a random video or picture.  I've said this before, it is very easy to judge someone's actions without knowing all of the circumstances, I've done it before, but it isn't always the right judgement.  I am very scared and worried about our children--the obsession with videoing, You Tubing, texting,etc can have some very dire consequences today and 5 years down the road.  Maybe the Amish are on to something, all of this technology and exposure to eveything can be bad for our mental health ,careers and most importantly, our souls.