A Letter to Bullies

To the Bullies:

You stand proud amongst your friends as you sling slurs.  Slurs that berate someone for their appearance or for things that have happened to them.

You stand with your wall of ignorance and intolerance to support you as you tear down someone before the eyes of those cheering you on for more.

You stand looking down on those who are different.  Different in your mind, but to those who you’re looking down upon don’t find themselves very different.

You stand leaning on those chanting for you to keep going.  To go farther with the unbearable and the unthinkable.

While you stand, we sit and rise above your low blows and your low curses.

We rise to a level that you will never be able to achieve.  A level that is unattainable to you because all you can do is tear down and hurt.

We rise with our friends to walk away with our heads held high even as your still spouting your viscous slurs about our appearance or references to our traumatic past.

We rise so that when the time comes we are the better for having withstood your torment and will be able to face any challenge that comes our way.  So, in reality by tearing us down you help us to rebuild and be strong for we know we will always rise and be the better for it.

You will never be able to say that.  You tore us down because that is all you know and what you have been taught is acceptable.  The true difference between you and us is that we rise above and you will always sink below.  We will transcend and you will only sink lower.

Sincerely,

Those of us who have overcome.

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My blog is not normally so serious, but I had to address this today.   I read an article today about a woman who was tormented on a school bus by middle school children.  The teasing and bullying got so bad that the woman was brought to tears.  It really impacted me because it just reminded me of how cruel children can be.  No matter what age the person being bullied is it still has the same outcome.  There is never a winner.  Just one person feels better about themselves because they tore someone down to make themselves feel better.  You also have the victim who continually asks themselves “Why me?”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAgti_2uziA&w=420&h=315]Having been someone who was bullied and teased tremendously growing up I could relate.  The pain that woman felt is the pain many of us have felt and some have felt on a daily basis for years.  When I started thinking about this topic today it really got me to wondering how children learn that this is acceptable behavior.  I wondered if bullies/mean kids begot more bullies/mean kids.  And if that is the case then do victims beget victims?  I am sure there is come correlation and validity to this, but honestly I think children are just not told what is acceptable and unacceptable anymore.  Sure there are kids with diagnosable disabilities but this is not the majority.  I think the majority just haven’t been told that they can’t treat people that way.  This, however, is not an excuse.

I can tell you this though.  If one of those children on that video were my son he would learn what is acceptable and not by spending his summer helping that woman around her house and mowing her lawn and doing her gardening ALL summer.  I know this seems weak but I no doubt he wouldn’t enjoy it.  But, I just hope that I raise a child who knows from the beginning what is acceptable and what is not.  I truly think these children need to be taught a lesson and not one by an outsider.  Their parents need to step up and finally teach their children something that should have been taught a long time ago.  Respect others.