As most of you may know by now, over the recent months, a heart-wrenching amount of teens were bullied to the point to where they killed themselves. Some 19....some 18...some 15....and even 13. Being young was not the only thing they had in common. They were all gay, and were ridiculed because of that fact. I don't understand how we can live in, or tolerate, a world where people as young as 13 are being bullied to death, just because they happen to be attracted to the same sex as themselves. How do people justify that? And how did kids all of a sudden get so unbearably cruel? At 13 you've barely lived your life at all. You've just reached the point of being a teenager, and you still have so much to live for, but these kids, of all the ages, felt differently. They were put down so much by their peers that they literally wanted to die. And just because they were gay. This is NOT okay. Using gay, faggot, homo, ANYTHING beyond those lines as an insult is NOT okay. Love is supposed to conquer all, right? Then why, WHY are people still trying to strip homosexual people from their human rights? They love some one from the same sex, SO WHAT. They love, isn't that all that matters? They're humans for crying out loud. And we all have human rights, right? So I thought. Bullying someone because they are gay is not okay. Bullying anyone for any reason is not okay. Making fun of someone because they are fat, skinny, black, white, asian, mexican, middle eastern, latino, dorky, nerdy, different, gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, Christian, muslim, jewish, atheist, ANYTHING, is NOT OKAY. No body should be reduced down to some label, and everyone deserves to be imagined complexly. We're people. We have personalities and our own minds and our own opinions. Just because your opinions might differ from someone else's does not give you the right to judge them, make fun of them, or tell them they are wrong. Bullying has always been around, and is getting so much worse in recent years. But it can stop. As you can tell from the suicide of these teens, bullying can be severely detrimental to whoever is getting bullied. If you or ANYONE you know is being bullied, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Get help, help the person, just make it stop. I know how hard it is to stand up to your peers, or to ask help when you need it, believe me. I'm turning 19 next month, so I've been a teenaged girl for a while, so I know. If something does not get done about bullying it could cost someone's life. And lastly, for those who are experiencing being bullied right now, I want you to know that it gets better. I'm speaking from experience, IT. GETS. BETTER. But in order for that to happen, you have to LET it get better. You have to get help. You're not alone, and even though you may not think it, there are always people willing to help. Always. Your life is as valuable as anyone else's, so before you end up harming yourself, please, PLEASE talk to someone. And if you are a person doing the bullying: I don't know what made you be a bully, but remember, you can stop it. Watch what you say, because you never know if that hurtful thing you said could be that one thing that causes someone to truly harm themselves.
As John Green said, “We live in this irreparably broken world, and I don’t wish to deny reality, but the amazing thing to me is not that we refuse to relinquish hope as a species, the amazing thing is that we’re right to hold on to hope. The world might be broken, but hope is not crazy.”
So have hope my friends, and remember that things will get better.
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