Comments on: Sacrificial Scapegoats .././ Because only the individual has a conscience Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:12:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Leila .././comment-page-1/#comment-325 Leila Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:19:23 +0000 ../../../../.././?p=131#comment-325 The conservative churches, newschannels and Tea Parties of the world will continue to spread their hate and ignorance as usual. "Society as a whole" will not spontaneously change, unless a major event changes public opinion or a strong civil rights-type movement starts pushing new ideas and, yes, legislation. I fully agree that repression alone will not do the job. Anti-bullying educational training is the best solution if it starts from Elementary School throughout the school years, and I don't see why mandatory training/awareness at the university and in the workplace would hurt. Because human beings are naturally self-absorbed and they DO tend to forget about the pain of others unless it happens to someone close to them, it is necessary to bring Tolerance/Anti-bullying training to the schools and the workplace. The conservative churches, newschannels and Tea Parties of the world will continue to spread their hate and ignorance as usual. “Society as a whole” will not spontaneously change, unless a major event changes public opinion or a strong civil rights-type movement starts pushing new ideas and, yes, legislation. I fully agree that repression alone will not do the job. Anti-bullying educational training is the best solution if it starts from Elementary School throughout the school years, and I don’t see why mandatory training/awareness at the university and in the workplace would hurt. Because human beings are naturally self-absorbed and they DO tend to forget about the pain of others unless it happens to someone close to them, it is necessary to bring Tolerance/Anti-bullying training to the schools and the workplace.

]]> By: Caroline .././comment-page-1/#comment-312 Caroline Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:53:32 +0000 ../../../../.././?p=131#comment-312 Not effective at all. Since I shared my story with you (that long email) and a handful of other people, I have been getting responses such as "I've been bullied, too." from people ages 30 to 64. This is a problem that's been ongoing for centuries. It all comes down to this: bullies are driven by the need for power. This type of power comes from putting others down. Bullies are fostered through some kind of abuse and fear of failing in the eyes of others'. Bullies will pick on people who they see as having the same "flaws" that they themselves fear. This may come from an upbringing that lacked emotional support, love, communication, or whatever else is required to responsibly bring up a child. I grew up and went to high school in the pre-Columbine era where bullying was not taken very seriously in school. (You read my story). Nowadays, schools are different. They are more proactive dealing with bullying by providing safer environments. However, the other issue at hand is that aside from bullying, what drove Tyler to end his life? Why was he concerned with people finding out if he was gay? Coincidentally, the small town where he grew up is where I was raised and spent my formative years. Homosexuality was a no-no. (My friend dropped out of high school because she was harassed for being bisexual.) This young man believed that it was better to end his life than confront his parents and conservative community with the news that he was gay! Rutgers offers excellent LGBT support but at a mere 3 weeks of being there, he wasn't ready to seek help. :-/ I don't blame Rutgers at all. I partially blame the public school system that failed him growing up. I partially blame the community's values of where he grew up. Why wasn't Tyler allowed to be himself? It wouldn't surprise me if Tyler was bullied growing up. Maybe kids were very cruel to him and already called him names like "fag" or "gay". I also blame the bullies' lack of judgment and the media for glorifying negative behaviors ("90210", "The Jersey Shore", "One Tree Hill", "Melrose Place" and all of those stupid shows are full of people scheming against each other, bullying each other, and belittling one another for pure amusement and entertainment.) What these bullies did was for pure entertainment. They get their entertainment at the expense of someone else. They were fully aware of this at the time they chose to video record Tyler. It will take a lot of working together and awakening for things to change. Not effective at all. Since I shared my story with you (that long email) and a handful of other people, I have been getting responses such as “I’ve been bullied, too.” from people ages 30 to 64. This is a problem that’s been ongoing for centuries. It all comes down to this: bullies are driven by the need for power. This type of power comes from putting others down. Bullies are fostered through some kind of abuse and fear of failing in the eyes of others’. Bullies will pick on people who they see as having the same “flaws” that they themselves fear. This may come from an upbringing that lacked emotional support, love, communication, or whatever else is required to responsibly bring up a child.
I grew up and went to high school in the pre-Columbine era where bullying was not taken very seriously in school. (You read my story). Nowadays, schools are different. They are more proactive dealing with bullying by providing safer environments.

However, the other issue at hand is that aside from bullying, what drove Tyler to end his life? Why was he concerned with people finding out if he was gay? Coincidentally, the small town where he grew up is where I was raised and spent my formative years. Homosexuality was a no-no. (My friend dropped out of high school because she was harassed for being bisexual.) This young man believed that it was better to end his life than confront his parents and conservative community with the news that he was gay! Rutgers offers excellent LGBT support but at a mere 3 weeks of being there, he wasn’t ready to seek help. :-/

I don’t blame Rutgers at all. I partially blame the public school system that failed him growing up. I partially blame the community’s values of where he grew up. Why wasn’t Tyler allowed to be himself? It wouldn’t surprise me if Tyler was bullied growing up. Maybe kids were very cruel to him and already called him names like “fag” or “gay”. I also blame the bullies’ lack of judgment and the media for glorifying negative behaviors (“90210″, “The Jersey Shore”, “One Tree Hill”, “Melrose Place” and all of those stupid shows are full of people scheming against each other, bullying each other, and belittling one another for pure amusement and entertainment.) What these bullies did was for pure entertainment. They get their entertainment at the expense of someone else. They were fully aware of this at the time they chose to video record Tyler. It will take a lot of working together and awakening for things to change.

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