We must take a stand

[ShatteredGlass]

Guys, i believe that we need to take a stand. Every single one of us. Bullying is an issue, whether psychological, cyber, or physical. And i think we need to act now. Now, is not the time to be afraid, think about what a difference it would make if someone had stood up to your bully to defend you. How much would that have helped. We need to not only let the bullies know that it's not okay to bully, but let the bystanders know it is not okay to do nothing. We need to set an example, set a new trend, we must make the path so that others can follow. Bullying is notokay, taking up space and being in your own world and letting the strong take advantage of the weak is not okay.

The time for doing nothing, for being afraid is over. Every single one of us lives life, and suffers, and cries, and aches, but it is not okay to make it okay for others to suffer at the hands or tongue of another because we do nothing.

How many more people must become victims of bullycide or depression? How many more people must be alienated before we take a stand? How many more people must cry themselves to sleep? Cut themselves (not saying all cutters were bullied)? Dread the next day? Miss out on the joy of life? Miss out on a good education? HOW MANY MORE PEOPLE? We cannot speak silently! We have a voice and we must use it! I am telling you now, you have no excuse, to stay silent.

The time to talk is over, we must do something now.

[Mzor203]

Well said, and I agree. Although it is hard to put yourself in danger sometimes to help others, it must be done. If anyone can help prevent bullying in any way, more power to you, and keep doing what you're doing. I commend you.

Thanks for this post. We need more people in this world with mindsets like your's. :)

[Destiny&Desire]

I wish everyone could think like that.

Due to bullying, now 99% of my class refuse to speak to me (I wasn't the bully) because I tried to stand up for myself. I wish I could have a voice, but it just seems to get kicked back when I speak out (my classmates are particularly inconsiderate towards bully victims).

I find it so sad how we had posters around school, and leaflets given out on the topic of bullying in school, and they felt it was appropriate to make fun of it, and pretend that the whole thing was a joke.

Let's hope that the wider society realise how serious this issue is, even if some idiots don't.

[Prince_of_Peace]

The reason there are bullies is because you and I let him. There is this guy in my 5th grade slass who wanted my lunch. He was like 6 inches taller than me and he is big. I stood up for myself and did not give my lunch to him. He and his friends layed their hands on me and I got sacked in different places. I was trowing my swing everywhere and I knew I was hitting somebody because I was also protecting my face. The three of them left me there on the floor and ran away when the teachers started rushing on us. I was jumped but I knocked out his two front teeth. Then his red-neck friend's left eye was bleeding. Two weeks later, they left me alone. They know this puppy ain't running away with a tail between the legs. I say to you ..dont run..fight back even if you loose. They will give you the respect you deserve at the end.

[Sapphire]

Easier said than done for someone who's been bullied...But power to you if you can do this.

[pizzamon]

Yeah bullying is not cool ever. I don't really see it at my school so that's good, but I agree that teasing and bullying should not be happening.

[Never_Forget]

<3 You're right, about everything...

...but finding a voice is more difficult than anything in the world, when nobody wants to listen...

[TigerLily]

Well said ShatteredGlass!
Bullies thrive on power, in most cases the power they feel they have over the victim. If bystanders would stand up to the bully and use their voice to show their intolerance towards bullying, then they would be effectively taking away the bully's power and be making the victim's life so much more bearable....
If only it was that easy, think of all the people who are being bullied as I type this now, whose lives are being so cruelly affected by these weak, horrible people...

[left footed mofo]

Bullying has been around for a long time, possibly since the beginnings of humanity. Bullying is simply the act of repeatedly and purposefully hurting or insulting another, it’s been blown out of proportion lately, mainly by a few extreme incidents involving someone dying, if you look at the amount of Bullying that goes on, these deaths are extremely rare.

Bullying can also make an individual stronger, after all, what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger. Such examples are teaching the ‘victim’ their own personal limits, also if someone gets teased about a bad habit such as nose picking, in an attempt to stop the Bullying they might stop. I’m not saying that being Bullied is a pleasant experience but it can help some people.

Also you can’t ‘beat Bullying’. Bullying is not an animal that can be hunted into extinction, a gene that can be eliminated by generations of selective breeding, or some virus that can be isolated and destroyed, it is something some people do, even if you try to beat it, Bullies will adapt, find new ways to Bully, it can be minimised or ignored, not beaten.

Anti-bullying can also be construed as prejudice seeing as you have no more right to discriminate against a Bully as you do someone who is black, homosexual or handicapped, don’t say it’s different, because it’s not, yet it’s more like discriminating against someone who has an office job, or got poor GCSE grades.

Verbal and psychological Bullying take a certain amount of intelligence and charisma to be able to do it effectively, this is a fact that many people will overlook. Also they say that Bullies suffer from low self-esteem, this can’t be true, as low self esteem would make Bullying difficult.

Another issue of perspective is that people think that bullying is getting worse, in fact levels of bullying are fairly stable, just more people are reporting it. On the same note, the word ‘Bully’ is often used to describe non-Bullies such as rapists, this leads to the word ‘Bully’ being associated with much worse actions then occur in most, if not all actual Bullying cases.

In closing, is this whole “beat Bullying” thing not just another way of Bullying the Bully? It has been proven that Bullying the Bully tactics do not work and often make the Bullying worse, for the Bully and the ‘victim’.
So let’s work together to stop the “beat Bullying” movement, for an end to prejudice!

[Sapphire]

In closing, is this whole “beat Bullying” thing not just another way of Bullying the Bully? It has been proven that Bullying the Bully tactics do not work and often make the Bullying worse, for the Bully and the ‘victim’.
So let’s work together to stop the “beat Bullying” movement, for an end to prejudice![/quote]Prejudice?!? My God, is there a limit to tripe you spew?!
Anti-bullying campaigns are NOT forms of prejudice and bullying the bully. They are to try to save people from being subjected to bullying.

You obviously have NO idea about what it's like to be bullied. Stop lecturing people on bullies and how they should view their experiences of being bullied. You are NOT right and you are NOT clever.

[left footed mofo]

Prejudice?!? My God, is there a limit to tripe you spew?!
Anti-bullying campaigns are NOT forms of prejudice and bullying the bully. They are to try to save people from being subjected to bullying.

You obviously have NO idea about what it's like to be bullied. Stop lecturing people on bullies and how they should view their experiences of being bullied. You are NOT right and you are NOT clever.[/QUOTE]

Ok, to start, you've read two posts by me, one of which barely said anything, and already you're saying things like 'is there a limit to the tripe you spew?!' i really don't think you have a whole lot to base that on.
I already said that i do know about bullying in my other post, so i won't repeat myself.

About anti-bullying campaigns, you said 'Anti-bullying campaigns are NOT forms of prejudice and bullying the bully. They are to try to save people from being subjected to bullying.'
Someone who leads a vigilante group against the Mexicans might say "it's not prejudice, I'm just trying to save people from having their jobs stolen by Mexicans"
Anti-bullying campaigns assume all bullies to be the same, explain how that's not prejudice.But I do take your point on them not being 'bullying the bully', i think that i was wrong and that 'bullying the bully' behaviour is more a result of anti-bullying campaigns then part of the campaign itself.

You also said 'You are NOT right and you are NOT clever'.
Saying i'm not right in such an authoritative way seems very close-minded to me and i never claimed to be clever, there's no point in rebuking a point that i never actually made.

[The Batman]

Lets get back on topic this is not a debate about whether bullying should be beaten or not take it to ROTW.

[left footed mofo]

Ok, this isn't off topic.
Even is people were to make this 'stand'.
How can bullying ever be completely beaten, earlier i said "you can’t ‘beat Bullying’. Bullying is not an animal that can be hunted into extinction, a gene that can be eliminated by generations of selective breeding, or some virus that can be isolated and destroyed, it is something some people do, even if you try to beat it, Bullies will adapt, find new ways to Bully, it can be minimised or ignored, not beaten."

If anybody thinks there IS a way to beat bullying, let me know