Usually I use the space on this blog to write about the minutiae of our life here on the sandbar and to muse about the uncertainties ahead on our road west. I like to keep it lighthearted, humorous and mostly frivolous. Usually. But yesterday, I came across a post on a blog I follow that stopped me cold in my tracks, moved me to tears and made me so angry. So today, my little blog, with my small following will become my soapbox in the hopes that the more people are aware that this is going on the more voices we can raise to stop the bullying that's killing kids.
I see it every day at the school where I teach. Kids who think they're being funny, or smart, or just for the sport of it think it's okay to demean and demoralize another, just because they're different. This particular article is about gay teenagers being bullied, literally to death...I haven't seen that yet at my school, but I can easily see how it could happen. We've all become really good at tolerating intolerance, turning a blind eye, pretending we didn't hear that racial/sexist/homophobic slur. When we pretend we don't hear or see we are in fact promoting the behavior. It's time we stopped. So they'll stop. And then the kids will stop...killing themselves.
Here is the article I'm referring to. I hope you'll read it. And then do something in your local community/school/office/work-place/park/mall to MAKE THIS STOP.
