Tag: Gandhi

There aught to be a law.

I was bullied as a child. I was different. I was a nerd, a geek and a bookworm who was socially awkward and shy, also known as an easy target. I can’t begin to count the number of times I came home crying because of the name calling and ostracizing. Oh, the good old days, when that’s all bullies did. Verbal and psychological abuse is bad enough, but it seems that the bullies of today have taken it to a whole other level.

Last week, three teenage girls decided it would be appropriate to set a 12 year old girl on fire. The act was pre-meditated. You can read about it here http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111127/mtl_fire_111127/20111127/?hub=MontrealHome

This is just one example in a sad trend of torturous behavior committed by teenagers and young adults. While I applaud celebrities like Lady GaGa

and Rick Mercer

for taking this on as a pet cause, I can’t help but wonder, where are the parents in all of this? Why are the parents of the victims not stepping forward and pressing charges? And what about the parents of the bullies, why are they allowing this behavior in their kids? Where were the teachers and faculty in all of this? In many cases this behavior happens right in front of adults who are supposed to be authority figures, yet they ignore it (just kids being kids). Where are the police in all of this? Why are the police not arresting these kids and making them pay for their behavior? Where is the legislature in all of this? There aught to be a law. If we continue to allow this behavior to go unpunished, then we have only ourselves to blame for the consequences.  Isn’t anyone doing anything to protect the victims of torment? Now I’m not talking about simple name calling, I’m talking about behavior like trying to set someone on fire, or behavior that causes a young gay teen to commit suicide.

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2011/09/25/lemon-rodemeyer-suicide.cnn

Doing nothing because “it’s hard” to do something is no excuse.

The statistics are scary http://www.bullyonline.org/stress/suicide.htm

I will leave you with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi,

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

But what if you’re an asshole?

Bill Cosby had this great joke (the only one in which he used profanity). He asked someone what was so great about using cocaine, the person replied it enhances your personality. His response was , but what it you’re an asshole?

I have always loved this joke. The punch line, for me, now becomes the question I ask when someone dies, and people begin to canonize him/her without merit. For example Amy Winehouse was a very talented singer with a unique voice and I am sure she is missed by her family and friends, but let’s get real. Was anyone really that shocked when she died? The way she lived her life, it was like she was begging for death.

Then there’s Michael Jackson, another very talented singer, dancer and performer. His childhood was far less than perfect. He grew into someone who used drugs as a crutch for his issues instead of facing them with strength and moving past them (which I would have actually admired). But now our hearts are supposed to bleed because he was to weak natured to overcome his demons.

Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley are examples of the very same behavior. I still don’t understand the fascination we have with the emotionally weak and famous. Fewer people mourned the passing of Mother Theresa and Gandhi, people who actually turned their, much worse, situations into wonderful acts of strength and kindness.

Could it be because these celebrities died young(er) that society sees it as so tragic? Or is it that we love to see this in a morbid, Schadenfreude kind of way? If we can’t be famous, then fame and happiness shouldn’t be allowed to coexist, so we are secretly celebrating the passing of these celebrities because it serves them right for pissing away the opportunity that we would sell our soul to have knock on our door?

I get the impulse to celebrate someone’s life after they die, but let’s actually celebrate the WHOLE PERSON. Warts and all. After all, the sooner we can collectively embrace our humanity the better off we will be as a society. It’s easier to change something when you stop making excuses and see it for what it really is.