This week I took a stand against bullying. i am glad I did, because the Dawson College shootings have everyone talking about the dangerous effects of bullying and exclusion. It is easy to wring your hands and believe there is nothing we can do about bullying.
My stand was a small stand, preceded by an uninvited act of hope. The act of hope was a letter of support to a teenager who was beaten at a party. Not knowing what to say, I simply said that I was sorry, and that I believed those same bullies would treat him better once he has passed into adulthood. David added some notes about famous people whose talents were not appreciated in high school. We had heard somewhere that Charles Schultz never got a cartoon published in the yearbook. It was a short letter.
I told somebody about the beating and he said to me: "These things happen. You just have to accept that." I begged to differ. I am not inclined to accept it. There are things we can do to help victims, and things we can do to stop bullies. Imagine how much closer we could be to solving the problem if everyone did something. I don't know if that little letter will change anything for the teenager. Chances are I will never know. But I do know that it changed something in me, turned me for a moment from being a helpless hand-wringer to a woman of action.
No comments:
Post a Comment