Who would bully someone? What would be their reason to bully that person? Where does bullying usually happen? When does bullying occur? Why would people deliberately hurt someone? How does this affect people today? We ask these questions, but do we really know the answers? I chose this topic because I have firsthand experience with bullying and I know people who know how it feels to be bullied.
There are many types of bullying, be it physical, emotional, verbal, and cyber bullying. Before I go on, I want you all to think about these questions: Have you ever bullied someone? Have you ever seen someone being bullied? If so, did you join in or did you help stop it, or did you do nothing at all? The reason I ask you these questions, is because I want you to think it over in your head, whether you have or have not bullied someone, and if so, I need to convince you all, that this is truly a problem.
To begin, I would like to share with all of you some facts about bullying. Bullying, of any kind, causes an average of 160,000 students every year to stay home because they are afraid of being bullied. What does this tell you? It tells us that people find it fun to punch, kick, push, spit on people, call them names, or text them horrible things, just so they can feel empowered. I type this now, expressing how I feel about this topic. This topic is cruel, vindictive, painful, heartfelt, emotional, and so many other emotions. I can also tell you what it feels like from both perspectives. As a victim of bullying, I struck back with the same hurtful words thinking that it would help. In essence, I committed the same wrongful act in self-defense. For seven years, I dealt with the pain and hurt from my peers, never truly understanding why I was a target for such cruelty. Because I attend a Catholic school, does not make me or anyone else immune to cruel actions nor does the issue disappear.
We should not bully a person. We should not have the audacity to tell someone they are worthless, ugly, fat, stupid, a queer, fag, or many other more daunting words that diminish the dignity of a human being. We should not touch someone without their permission, whether we punch them, kick them, spit on them, or anything else that can physically hurt them. We do not have the right to do this to people. We do not have the right to do this to people because we were not put on this earth to judge people, we were put here to love our neighbors. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "It is Christ, 'the image of the invisible God,' that man has been created 'in the image and likeness of the Creator' (CCC1701)." If we as Catholics, and as moral human beings, thought about the fast, that when we attack another person, we attack the very person of Christ, I have no doubt that cruelty would diminish and bullying would not be such a hot topic in today's world. I also believe that we would empower an entire generation to extinguish a problem that takes the lives of 40,000 students every year in the form of suicide.
No matter how many times we think we may not be guilty of bullying, I have no doubt that if we were to reflect upon our actions daily, we may find that we spoke some hurtful words, or we made unkind gestures, maybe out of anger or sheer disregard for another person. The realization of how we "kill" others may be the sin, that we ourselves, have committed. None of us would ever think to crucify Christ, so why do we insist on crucifying each other? Why, when we are created in His very image, can we not respect the dignity of the divine image? Why have we allowed such a thing as bullying to take the lives of our friends and family? I may not have the answers to these specific questions, but I am confident that as a generation we can change the future. I hope that the next time we are tempted to "kill" with our words or defile the beauty of human life in each other, that we stop and think about the incredible responsibility we have been given to protect life and to love our neighbor as we would want them to love and protect us.
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