You are feeling disheartened.
You know that what you attempted to communicate was with a kind heart,
an email written 'write unto others only the way you'd have them write to you' .
Yet, the harsh, threatening, obscenity filled response had you physically shaking and tears pooling in your eyes.
Part of a biological response as a woman. Partly because you are a caring human.
What saddens you most--is not the response--as considering the source, it was not a shock.
The saddest part is that it is very hard for you to express yourself....on sticky every day issues.
Even when you are so right to do so.
Everything in you wants to retreat and curl up. Silence never to be broken again.
yet, I encourage you....speak up. In love, yes. Seasoned with grace, yes.
Do not let anyone bridle your words.
Who has said that only children are bullied? Or that only children are bullies?
No one benefits, not even the bully, when the bully is not confronted.
Lack of response or consequences only gives the bully the negative reinforcement that their behavior or words are right.
And the bullied, what message do they receive?
Hmmm. Let's ask the girl beat up in school who was instructed by the principal that if she had even attempted self defense she would have been suspended or expelled.
Let's ask the Baby...no, we can't. He's been aborted. No one spoke up for him.
Let's ask the girl who took years to finally confide to her parents that she has been sexually abused for years,
only to be treated as a liar and promiscuous.
Let's ask the boy who was physically jumped in school last week and was in a comma and subsequently died.
The two bullies received a two day suspension.
Let's ask the picture perfect wife who is in an abusive marriage, yet if she ever says a word he will (quote)
'blow her f****** head off and kill the children'.
Let's ask the guy who wants to make things right but is being blackmailed.
The list of examples would be endless.
Bullying just doesn't happen in schools or in families.
It happens in the workplace. In politics. In sports. In the legal arena.
In churches. In the neighborhood. In phone calls. In emails.
This list would also be endless, as
wherever, there are humans interacting, there will be bullying, to some degree.
Is silence the answer? Is tip toeing around the bullies the solution?
No, it just exacerbates the problem.
Then, what???
Speak Up.
*'It has been profoundly said, and how true it is, that the only thing necessary
for evil to exist is for good people to remain silent...'
I'm just sayin'. Dont' shut up. Speak Up. And keep Speaking Up.
*(The exact quote came from Edmund Burke (1729-1797) - English statesman)
Speak Up
Wendy Lee Witz
WitzEnd Writings
March 2013
