BBs Blog

I was going back over some of the news stories I’ve read the last couple of days, and have decided what we need is a really good anti-bully ad campaign like the ones mentioned in the story about a surprising new way to discourage risky behavior. If the ad folks could just come up with the right ad campaign, perhaps it would discourage the kind of cruel schoolyard bullying that hurts so many of our children. And that’s leads me to wonder why don’t we see ads that make it plain that bullying behavior is wrong? We have ads that are meant to discourage young folks from smoking, doing drugs, and indulging in sexual activities, yet I have never seen any kind of ad that tries to discourage young folks from bullying others.

A quick Google search for anti-bullying organizations in America assured me there are plenty of anti-bullying organizations here. So, why aren’t they getting the press that other anti-this and that organizations are? I’m not sure what the answer to that question is, but I do think that this is a problem that needs to be addressed in a more aggressive manner than it has been.

Because of a car accident that happened when I was in my early teens that left me with some scars, I was one of those kids that endured a lot of bullying in and out of the schoolyard. Fortunately, I had parents and friends who helped me to deal with that bullying in as positive a manner as possible. But, I have never forgotten the emotional pain that bullying caused me. I’ve been told by a lot of people that I should forget that pain. And for many years I did try to do that. However, that kind of emotional pain is never easily forgotten. And as I sit here and see how bad bullying has become in our society, it occurs to me that forgetting that pain is not the right thing to do because if I sit back and forget it, then how can I help others who are going through that pain? Remembering that pain, and knowing how much damage it can do is what helps inspire me to try and reach out to others who are going through it now.

Now a word of warning to those reading this column, do not, under ANY circumstances email me or make some comment to this article about how the poor bullies of the world are just misunderstood kids or grown ups who are acting out because they had really bad crap happen to them. I had more really bad crap happen to me growing up than you can shake a stick at. Yet I never used what happened to me as an excuse to turn around and hurt other people. I am sick to my soul of people excusing bullies because of bad crap that happened to them. We all have had bad crap happen to us at one time or another. But, that doesn’t give any of us the right to hurt others because of whatever bad crap happened to us.

I believe the only way we can stop bullying is to stop making excuses for the bullies, and make a stand that clearly says, “We don’t care what the hell bad crap happened to you, that doesn’t give you the right to hurt others.” Only by taking such a stand and making it clear that we as a society will not tolerate bullying under any circumstances will we be able to stop it. If we don’t stop it, then we face a world where more and more children will grow up to be adult bullies who do things like abuse their spouses and children, and go online as trolls. Help break the bullying cycle, and take a stand today against those who think hurting others is a fun and acceptable form of behavior. Don’t just make an excuse for a bully, make a difference!