Bullying

Bullying

Bullying 1

Bullying 1

Bullying

The verb bully means to treat abusively. (Merriam-Webster) I can remember growing up in the 1980’s, bullies were present in the schools and even on the block that I lived on. I was sometimes the subject of name-calling; what kid was never called something by another kid? It was and seemed at the time to be the norm. I would run into my house almost in tears, tell my parents what had happened and my mother or father would want to go outside and confront the bully. But I had to stop them because having my mommy and daddy fight my battles would only give the bully more ammunition. In lieu of defending me, they would try to comfort me. Using normal parental sayings like, “What they say are just words”, “You are better than he is” and then they would recite the “Sticks and stones” idiom. As an adolescent, it was tough for me to comprehend the idiom, because the words did hurt. Eventually, I regained my strength and composure. I taught myself not to let the words bother me, to ignore the bully and, in due time, the bullying stopped.

Over the past week I conducted my own survey. I will admit it was very amateurish, but it helped. I nonchalantly mentioned to numerous friends that I had to write a paper. When asked, “What are you writing about?” I answered, “Bullying.” The response I got from most was, “What about it?” This helped me. I write this paper today to bring attention to this new hate crime that is quietly sweeping the nation. For the last several days, I have made it my obligation to look through the newspapers to see if there were any articles on bullying, to my surprise there was not. Does this mean that the act of bullying is not newsworthy?

Giving up on printed media, I turned to the internet. Using a well-known search engine, I searched the word “bullying”. The results were overwhelming. Page after page flooded my monitor. This is what my friends and all people need to see. One article...