#savesociety

[khaled77bd]

Before home quarantine. After home quarantine coming soon. #stayhome #lockdown #savesociety #savefamily #savecountry (at কুষ্টিয়া পৌরসভা,কুষ্টিয়া) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-o5V6WDGXr/?igshid=mh2hq64ahesb

[babysteps-back-to-life]

(…) When the topic of bullying is mentioned, many people smirk, shrug their shoulders and say something like “Oh come on, they’re just joking around”. But what if it’s not a joke to those who are the punchline? When I was a kid, I never really fitted in. I was silent a lot and I didn’t have many friends because I was rather shy. It didn’t really bother me. But somewhere around seventh grade, I guess my being me got to offensive to some of the other kids. They started calling me names. When I tried to talk to my Mom about it, the reaction I got was something like “Oh honey, you really need to learn not to take everything so seriously.” And I tried, I really did. I told myself that their whispered words were just jokes. Ugly, fat, stupid weirdo. You’re such a looser. Don’t you have any friends? No one wants you here. Do us all a favor and go kill yourself. You’re so disgusting. Haha! Isn’t it funny? I became quite good at shutting out their voices, but instead of leaving me alone, those kids started to look for new methods to get to me. One day a teacher asked why my former neighbor wasn’t sitting next to me anymore and she looked him innocently in the eye, telling him with a sweet honey dripping voice “I’m sorry Mr. Arnold, but she smells like a garbage can and I can’t concentrate sitting close to her”. When I came into class the next day, they would all run to the other side of the room acting as if I was carrying a dangerous virus and telling me to not dare come any closer. I started spending my lunchbreaks alone, hiding in the bathroom.  But they figured it out and the girls followed me in there, standing around the cabin, chanting insults, asking if I was already crying. Looking for another safe haven I even started sneaking into the seniors’ library. There between the bookshelves they finally couldn’t find me anymore.  But they found another way to torture me. Coming back from lunchbreak I now usually found my books ripped apart, my pencils thrown all over the classroom and my notes filled with even more harassing messages. We hate you. No one likes you. Kill yourself. You’re just a stupid piece of shit. You deserve what you get. This world would be better without you. At this point, I didn’t even bother to tell my Mum about it anymore. I already knew what she would say. “They’re just joking. Ignore them.” (….) But how do you ignore something like this? School became my daily battleground and I was stuck in war that I could not win. Standing alone fighting armies. My so called friends had either joint them or were watching from the sideline. Because no one wanted to stand by the side of the looser. Too afraid they would become one, too. And I gave up. I didn’t want to fight anymore. All I wanted was to disappear. I’m not the only child that grew up this way. Open your eyes! This happens on a daily basis. One out of every four students reports being bullied at school. 15% of students report not showing up for school out of fear of being bullied. Over 10% of these kids believe the only way to get away from the harrassment is to change schools and start over again. Every 30 minutes a child attempts suicide due to bullying. Amanda Todd. Emilie Olsen. Ryan Halligan. Those are just three names on a list that is already way too long. Why did we let this list get so long? When did society start believing this to be something normal? Something kids just do? Something that even makes them grow stronger? Something that they’ll just get over? When did we accept this terrible joke that is in no way funny? Don’t be fooled into believing that this kind of violence stops after graduation. It is everywhere. It starts at the playground, carries on throughout school, finds its way to college and afterwards gets comfortable at our workplaces. How many of you, sitting here right now, have experienced any type of bullying? And how many of you have believed, any time in your life, that you weren't good enough? How many of you watched someone you love struggle through something like this? How many of you overlooked bullying but didn’t step in? How many of you have helped spread rumors about someone? How many of you have actively bullied someone? Did telling someone they’re fat make you feel better about your body? Did telling someone they’re stupid make you feel more intelligent? Did telling someone they should just kill themself make you feel like your life was better than theirs? It takes one second to say these things but a lifetime for someone to get over it. So the next time you open your mouth think about what you’re going to say. Being mean to someone and pointing out their flaws will not make yours disappear. It might make you feel superior for some time and it might make people laugh, but once you start thinking about what your words could do to this other person… is it still funny? We should be helpful not hurtful.  We are all human beings. No matter if your religious beliefs are different, if your skin color is different, if you're gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgendered. If you like reading and doing school work more than going to parties and getting drunk every day. You are important. Your life matters. You deserve to be happy. We are all different, that's what makes life exciting. And we all deserve to be treated with respect and kindness. (…) And we need to start fighting for this. Bullying is a problem that is very real and that needs to be stopped. We need to stop telling our kids that this kind of behavior is normal. It’s not. Instead we need to start teaching them how to properly treat others. And instead of telling them to just learn to take a joke, we need to start listening to them and teaching them self-love in this world full of hate. And most of all we need to stop waiting for change but instead be it. Society won’t change from one day to the other. But if any of you walk out of this room today, remembering what I have said, you will start acting differently. And this difference in the acting of one person can sometimes be the start of a whole revolution. Back then in middle school, things got worse and worse. But just before I couldn’t take it anymore, one boy woke up. He realized that I wasn’t laughing at this joke they had made me the punchline of. He realized that what they were doing was wrong. And he did something no one else had found the courage to do: he said something. “Come on guys, this is getting lame. Let’s leave her alone.” Those two sentences changed my life back then. Sometimes that’s all it takes. Say something. Be the change you’re waiting for. (...)

Excerpt from the Antibullying-Speech at the Save Society christmas gala

[lesbians-taylors-version]

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