I am proud of so many people in my life. I am happy that so many of the people I love and am close to have the power of courage and the strength of character to be who they are and to stand up for things they believe in.
I am not so proud of myself.
I know this may come as a shock to a lot of you, but I don’t have the best self esteem and I don’t always see in myself the good qualities that others see in me. I think that is why I struggle so much with so many things. I also think there are real reasons why I can’t see those things in myself. A lot of you feel the same way.
I DO have a strong character and powerful courage, but it all falls short when it comes to me or my life. I think that is because I have been quite satisfied to just let myself down. Low expectations, after all, yield low results.
Recently I became involved with the “it gets better” campaign and the “Trevor Project” to raise awareness for the anti bullying cause worldwide.
I have spent decades trying to find a way to help people somehow...Big Brothers, the Leukemia Society, Shriner’s, St Jude’s, all wonderful causes, all very dear to me, but I didn’t feel half as good working with those groups as I did after making and posting a thirty second video to the you tube campaign for It Gets Better. While beating cancer and being a mentor are big parts of my life, being bullied has been a huge factor in most of my life.
I remember being bullied in Kindergarten. I was called names, pushed around and teased by family, friends and even some of the people reading this, well let’s face it folks, most of the people reading this. When I was a 7 year old at the swimming pool my cousin Billy bullied me because of my weight, another cousin and my Aunt bullied me because of my demeanor when I was 14 during a summer vacation and we haven’t been close since. I was laughed at, tripped up, teased and hit by bullies from the time I first rode the school bus at the age of 5 all the way through present day. I get bullied now because of my profession, by adults.
I think I am unable to feel proud of my own accomplishments as an adult because of the way I have been perceived and because of the way I been treated my whole life. It may even affect my ability to love, romantically. It has affected how I deal with people and how what I expect from myself.
I am not posting this for your pity, or for your tears, or even for your support, I am a big boy now, I don’t need or want any of it…What I want, the reason for this post, the reason for all of what I do this for, is your anger!
I demand that everyone, reading this post, get pissed off! I require that in order for you to make amends for the bullying you know you have done in your life, I am guilty too. STAND UP NOW! Tell your kids, your grandkids and your neighbors, the strangers you see mistreating others, to STOP!
Make yourself get up and put your foot down. Tell your kids that everyone deserves respect, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and everyone deserves someone on their side.
Don’t make excuses for this behavior, don’t chalk it up to being a kid, kids grow up and become adults, adults with regret for being a bully, or adults scarred from being bullied. Which one are you?
Each one of you can remember an instance from your life when you were treated badly or when you were the bully. Share the experience with someone, apologize to them for it (even if they aren’t the one involved) and make it a point to dedicate some part of you to stop it from happening to someone else.
Bullying happens everywhere. I went to a church once where a preacher was bullied out of his job by a handful of the congregation that disliked him. I went to a school once where fourth graders were bullied by a mean OLD woman that hated kids but still had the nerve to be a teacher. I went to another school where the students bullied a teacher because he seemed gay to them, I worked at a salon once where 21 year old stylist was mooed at for being just a few pounds overweight. I have seen people get away with it all my life and I am tired of it. Aren’t you?
Make every place you are at, a safe zone for everyone. Demand that hate and bullying be left outside and stomp it out when you see it.
If you don’t want to do it for the kids being bullied today, do it to help reconcile the bullying you were involved in or witnessed as a kid, or even the bullying you were involved in or witnessed yesterday.
JUST DO IT!
Have a great weekend, let’s Stand up and stop bullying together!
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