“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,” words from the Beatles’ song “I am the Walrus” are memorable for many reasons. Listeners interpret the lyrics in several ways, but to me, they are about our sameness. We are all the same; we are one.
“See how they run like pigs from a gun; see how they fly,” the Beatles’ lyrics continue, delineating the moment a person is bullied. The bullied are stripped of all choices, and there is no hope left. Death may seem like the only option to escape a relentless and unforgiving world.
These words come to mind when I think of a subject that’s been on the news a lot lately — teen suicides are headlining newspapers and electronic media. The media reports that most suicides are related to bullying. What a tragedy. This must come to an end immediately.
People have become fearful of one another, especially young people between the ages of 10 and 24. The group most likely to be targeted by harassers in school, in the workplace, and in their own communities. The lyrics continue, “I’m crying.” I am crying, the world is crying, we are all crying in desperation to put an end to the reign of bullies taking over the world.
We cannot blame the media for making suicides front page news. The people of the world are reaching out for help; people from families, friends, and different social and cultural groups unite to voice their needs. It is the media’s job to report the latest news to the people; it is the news from the people to the people.
The media is not doing any damage for those who have taken their lives, quite the contrary. Celebrities and other people are standing up by voicing their opinions to put an end to bullying by saying enough is enough. A particular saying is echoing through Televisions, radio stations, and websites, “It gets better.” And it will only get better as a person progresses through school, and life as a whole.
How will it get better? As the years go by, and you focus on school projects, major career goals, and anything in between, bullying will follow unless you stare it straight in the eye and say, “enough is enough!” In a recent episode of the hit series “Glee”, Kurt Hummel, played by Clovis native Chris Colfer, is the only openly gay teen in his high school. As the pressure of being bullied starts to weigh down on him, Colfer reaches out to another student from an all boys school, where there is a zero tolerance policy.
After being pushed against his locker for the last time, Colfer jumps to his feet and chases his bully into the locker room where he confronts the bully. “What is your problem?!” screamed Colfer, not backing down from the verbal abuse the bully continues to shout back. Colfer continues to confront his bully by screaming “if you’re going to hit me, then hit me! You cannot beat the gay out of me, just as much as I cannot beat the ignoramus out of you.” In the end, Colfer overcomes being bullied by standing up with an “enough is enough!” attitude.
Bullying comes in many different forms. Bullying may be indirect or direct, minimal verbalizations, or extreme warfare, it is everywhere.
In the New York Post, Maggie Gallagher, chairman for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM); an organization that believes that marriage is only between a man and a woman, writes about the people who are calling her a bully in an October blog titled “Don’t blame me for gay teen suicides.” Many people seem to agree that she is one of the many at fault for the recent increase of teen suicides, but Gallagher disagrees to these accusations by writing, “It’s a horrific charge to levy in response to some pretty horrifying stories.”
Gallagher uses statistics of gay teens in Massachusetts, a state that has partial legalization of gay marriage for four years now, to rebuttal her dispute on the topic. It is not the statistics that urged myself to agree with others to label her as a bully, it was her misuse of the statistics and the way she feels that the organization she is part of has no effect on encouraging bullies passively to taunt and ridicule others. “Do I have blood on my hands?” wrote Gallagher.
This is a case of indirect bullying. Gallagher, and NOM as a whole, have toured the country to speak against equal rights, and many of their followers have been caught holding vicious signs. One sign a follower felt the need to hold high had this message, “The solution to gay marriage” with a picture of two nooses and a verse from the bible. Lynching?
In 2008, the nation elected Barack Obama as the country’s new President because the citizens of the United States believed that he would bring great change. Now, people are retreating from these proposed changes and would rather wage war on one another; as we wage war at home our nation fights a war over seas.
But there is hope, and I cannot stress enough how much this statement is true. Celebrities, and regular people, continue to echo the words “it gets better” in home made videos posted across the Internet.
Collin Farrell, actor, wrote a short speech and this is what he said.
“Bullying is torture, it is another betrayal of basic human decency, and its scars reach way into the future of its survivors; but the saddest truth is that not all children survive it,” Farrell said. “It is a potentially fatal societal illness that must be respected, and not feared, respected and dealt with as a very real problem, and as an adversary of a potentially harmonious world that should have no place for bullies or bullying.”
Ryan James Yezak, a regular person such as you and I, posted a video on YouTube and speaks out to everyone to hold on, because IT GETS BETTER.
“When I was in junior high and high school I was made fun of for many different reasons,” Yezak continues, “For being overweight, for hanging out with all girls, for talking gay, for looking gay, for acting gay, and it really hurt my feelings.”
Although this article may seem as if it is only directed to gay youth, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, it is not. This is for ANYONE and EVERYONE who has ever been bullied, or has bullied someone. This is a stand to make the hatred STOP.
“NO ONE has an easy life. It is the people that bully you that are the most miserable inside, which is precisely why they pick on you. To make you feel as unhappy as they are. Junior high and high school can be vicious. The best advice that I can give you is, be who you are and do whatever you can to get through it. Once you get out of there, a whole new world will open up, and nothing that you thought mattered will matter anymore. Try not to let others get you down, because they will try, and they will try HARD. But what you have to remember is this; life can be hard, difficult, unbearable, and what may seem like unlivable, but whatever you do, DON’T STOP LIVING. Because no matter how bad you feel, no matter how unhappy you are, no matter what has happened, it will get better. There may be times when you feel like you are all alone in the world, but you are NEVER alone, trust me. There are good moments and bad moments in life, but it is all of those moments that make you who you are. There’s nothing easy about life, but that is what makes it worth living. Life gets hard, it gets scary, it gets rough, it gets challenging, problematic, unfair, tiring, it gets sad, stressful, IMPOSSIBLE, frightening, exhausting, complicated, unimaginable, complex… it gets better,” said Yezak.
Do you remember Christina Aguilera’s music video to her song “Beautiful”?
As Aguilera sits alone in an empty apartment room the video shows a girl who looks anorexic, contemplating that she may still look as though she is still too fat. Two men on a ben
ch kissing softly and smiling in public, a girl being beaten for her unpopular standing in school, and a man who for just his different looks made people feel as though they had to change seats on the bus to get away from him.
After all these hateful scenes Aguilera’s message is clear, “We are beautiful, each and every way. Words can’t bring us down.” The people in her video although they felt defeated, smile and face the camera, because they knew above all else, nothing could hurt them, and nothing will ever hurt them unless they allow it to.
For more videos and help with bullying, and please before contemplating something as horrific as suicide, PLEASE contact one of the many sources available in your school, in your city, in your state, in your country, because my message is clear:
You are NOT alone; we are not alone. No matter what our ethnicity may be, our cultural background, our religious beliefs, political standings, or our sexual orientations may be, we are never alone. Choose life; know that after reading this, you have at least one person on your side.
For more information: SuicidePreventionLifeLine.org, ItGetsBetter.org, TheTrevorProject.org, GetEqual.org, EqCA.org, and YouTube.com [To find various, positive videos such as Ryan James Yezak’s].
