This is a day late, but...
...the message is still important.
10/9/2010
My thoughts are of John Lennon today, on what would have been his 70th birthday, had he been allowed to live.
Give peace a chance.
I read some news today (oh, boy). There are kids everywhere being tormented on a daily basis by their peers. Their crime? Being different. How did this turn into such an epidemic?
When I was in school, I was one of the unfortunates that did get teased/picked-on, even beaten-up (elementary school, folks. Should serve as a warning to parents everywhere). And while it was not the in the same relentless fashion that goes on today, it caused its fair share of hurt, depression and vengeful thoughts. I was lucky in that it happened in certain situations only, but there was damage done. By the time I was 16, I'd adopted an "I don't care" attitude towards most people and my mouth was my weapon. Someone said something to me, I verbally blasted them to where there was no "come-back". Today's kids are not so lucky, because the torment is hitting them at all ends and can be 24/7, thanks to the internet and text-messaging.
Group-mentality perpetuates this behaviour - pick on the outsiders, the weak, the ones that do not conform. Some do it to keep their own status, lest the abuse be turned on them. Others in these "groups" learned their ways from home-life. Bigotry and hate are learned, not in-born. Others still are actually disturbed, and no one sees or feels right in saying so, so the problem goes unaddressed.
As far as the kids that felt they couldn't endure any longer...they turned their anguish inward and took their own lives. If they'd turned the anger outward, there'd be much more in the way of school shoot-outs, or other acts designed to destroy the lives of their tormentors, which would more than likely take out innocents as well.
I do not have kids. I joke about it sometimes, but think I may actually be thankful. Children are empty vessels. They take in what is around them, what is taught to them, what they see, hear and read. If they are filled with the "wrong stuff", they can grow up to be violent or sociopathic or worse. Every parent needs to teach understanding and tolerance, as well as "everything else". Kids need to know there are consequences for treating someone badly. They need to know that the kid they're bullying or beating up is a person too, and has parents, feelings, hopes & dreams and more than likely doesn't understand why they are being tormented.
If you look at this on a grander scale, some of the political BS going on in the world actually comes back to what is elementary. Popularity, entitlement, My invisible man in the sky is better than your invisible man in the sky...all learned thoughts & behaviours.
Teach your children well. It truly is the only way to stop this particular madness.
10/9/2010
My thoughts are of John Lennon today, on what would have been his 70th birthday, had he been allowed to live.
Give peace a chance.
I read some news today (oh, boy). There are kids everywhere being tormented on a daily basis by their peers. Their crime? Being different. How did this turn into such an epidemic?
When I was in school, I was one of the unfortunates that did get teased/picked-on, even beaten-up (elementary school, folks. Should serve as a warning to parents everywhere). And while it was not the in the same relentless fashion that goes on today, it caused its fair share of hurt, depression and vengeful thoughts. I was lucky in that it happened in certain situations only, but there was damage done. By the time I was 16, I'd adopted an "I don't care" attitude towards most people and my mouth was my weapon. Someone said something to me, I verbally blasted them to where there was no "come-back". Today's kids are not so lucky, because the torment is hitting them at all ends and can be 24/7, thanks to the internet and text-messaging.
Group-mentality perpetuates this behaviour - pick on the outsiders, the weak, the ones that do not conform. Some do it to keep their own status, lest the abuse be turned on them. Others in these "groups" learned their ways from home-life. Bigotry and hate are learned, not in-born. Others still are actually disturbed, and no one sees or feels right in saying so, so the problem goes unaddressed.
As far as the kids that felt they couldn't endure any longer...they turned their anguish inward and took their own lives. If they'd turned the anger outward, there'd be much more in the way of school shoot-outs, or other acts designed to destroy the lives of their tormentors, which would more than likely take out innocents as well.
I do not have kids. I joke about it sometimes, but think I may actually be thankful. Children are empty vessels. They take in what is around them, what is taught to them, what they see, hear and read. If they are filled with the "wrong stuff", they can grow up to be violent or sociopathic or worse. Every parent needs to teach understanding and tolerance, as well as "everything else". Kids need to know there are consequences for treating someone badly. They need to know that the kid they're bullying or beating up is a person too, and has parents, feelings, hopes & dreams and more than likely doesn't understand why they are being tormented.
If you look at this on a grander scale, some of the political BS going on in the world actually comes back to what is elementary. Popularity, entitlement, My invisible man in the sky is better than your invisible man in the sky...all learned thoughts & behaviours.
Teach your children well. It truly is the only way to stop this particular madness.
posted by kacey at 4:57 PM
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