Just say NO to Bullies

This morning I read an article about a group of three girls who had made a video about bullying for a contest entry, and won recognition in the form of a proclamation, so I took the opportunity to watch the video on YouTube. There has been a great deal in the news lately about bullying and its very real and very life threatening consequences. This week there was a story in the newspaper about law enforcement in Florida actually doing something about it, in the form of arresting the two girls who had allegedly bullied another girl to the point where she took her own life; in essence they bullied her to death. Along with my shock and dismay about the girl who died, the shock and sadness that enveloped me was with regard to the lack of empathy, the outright lack of feeling of one of the girls involved; and not only did she not deny having done it, her message seemed to indicated that she was proud that she had hounded another human being to her death. What have we become? Where is our society on its way to? Our entertainment, and especially that targeted at the young seems to consist of vampire tales, mean girls—the meaner the better—and zombie and other graphic novel characters who take the place of humans. We also have the super characters, like Spiderman, Batman, etc, who are human crossovers, and other human-like characters, like avatars, and men-in-black, and (Keanu reeves) But look around. Do you see any of those kinds of creatures? So far as I know, with the exception of the much debated Yeti and Loch Ness Monster, what we see when we look around is other people, pretty much just like us, with the same kinds of feelings, more or less, the same kinds of needs and thoughts and likes and dislikes. Ask just about anyone, and they will probably tell you that at some time in their life, they were bullied about something. It might be because they were small, or the only redhead, or fat, or different in some way from the “group”, whatever that was. And if you question them further, they will probably tell you that during the time they were bullied, even if it was by a sibling, they felt pretty awful. But taking it one step further, did they ever bully? Even knowing how awful it was to be on the receiving end of the torment, did it stop them from ever being on the “team”, or even standing aside out of fear, when the “team” went after someone else? Everyone at some time has the possibility of being the object of unwanted attention. And don’t we all have some flaw, or even some great thing about us that makes us a little bit different than the rest of the crowd? Whether it is positive or negative, being the exception seems to have become a dangerous thing to be among the tender young. Wouldn’t it be great if we could teach our children, and be the support of children other than our own to learn to withstand the pressure? Wouldn’t it be great if we could be an example of one who steps into the space between the “crowd” and the object of derision, if not to protect, then to remind the members of the crowd that the mob sometimes turns on one of their own, and they could be next. There is no loyalty when the mob become frenzied, is there? I guess what I am saying has already been said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” And do it now, because innocents are dying.