Greensburg, Indiana is the scene of another suicide involving anti-gay harassment.
In contrast to some advice givers, I would say Greensburg schools need to talk about sexual orientation related harassment in their schools.
Tonight my local school district rolls out a bullying prevention program. I am on the committee charged with making it work and I have already heard concerns that the exercise is just some kind of left-leaning pro-gay thing. My reply is that my children in elementary school have been called anti-gay slurs. I live in a small town full of truly caring people and we still need to discuss respect for all. They do in Greensburg. I bet they do in your town too.
(Hat tip to Timothy Kincaid)
Eddy,
You stopped the quote too soon. You should have included
Eddy,
Do you have any thoughts about Asher Brown?
Or Billy Lucas?
Or the 13 year old in Tehachapi?
Or the cheerleading boy with the broken arm?
This sounds reminiscent of Al Gore’s reversal of Scripture when he said, “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.”
No, Timothy. If you honor the first commandment and love God, then you will know how to love people. It doesn’t work the other way around. It’s top down. Yes, Jesus did say that what you do to the least of these my brothers, you also do to me. But he was not conveying quite the same thought there as he was when he cited the two most important commandments.
I don’t feel you walking around in my head, so how to you claim to know the intentions behind my statements that you so poorly read?
Timothy just wants to make sure we all know what bullying looks like, I guess.
I forgive him.
Thanks for correcting me, Timothy, no one approaches your level.
Yes, I do. On top of the tragedies of injury and death, I find it lamentable that whenever they have been mentioned here, it’s been as an argumentative tool.
I’ll let Christ speak for himself.
Perhaps He had it “backwards” as well. Perhaps Jesus didn’t understand that “it’s top down”.
I think I’ve said all I can here. It takes truly hardened hearts not to feel even the slightest sense of sadness over the death of children and to see any call for compassion as an “argumentative tool.”
I guess that make you like Jesus. Or like Jesus if he was supporting the oppressor and demeaning the victim and calling any criticism of his self-righteousness “bashing.”
Debbie and Timothy -
Suppose the “wounded man” said to the Samartan – “I do not need your help. Go away.”
You are both assuming that the other needs your help. And niether one of you sees that need for help[.
Did I not just explain that? Echo chamber again.
Yes, it does, Timothy. Try as I may, I don’t find anyone here doing that. You are certain you know what others think and feel here. I think you need to go sort out your own feelings.
Mary, huh? I don’t get what you are saying here. You did, at least get right that the Samaritan was the one giving the aid and not the wounded man. I let that allusion slide earlier.
Debbie,
You don’t get it? How do you and Timothy know the difference between who is wounded and who is providing aid?
Mary, you need to be clearer. Is “the other” referring to Timothy and me? Are you saying he thinks I needs his help and vice versa? Or are you speaking of bullied kids and the help we may or may not be able to give them? I’m sorry, but this is just fuzzy. Especially in light of your preceding comment about the wounded person possibly not wanting help. I presumed that to be a bullied person (?). Not even sure of that.
“Who is wounded and who is providing aid?” Again, not clear what kind of metaphor you are setting up here.
Debbie,
I’m saying you both see the other as the person who is in need of help. And you both are claiming that you don’t need any help.
How do you know what is the more accurate picture?
OK. I think you mean we both want to correct each other and yet both feel we need no correction. We are at a stalemate, so it is pointless for Timothy and me to continue. Nothing meaningful can come of it at this point.
Timothy, I call for a truce. I think you and I both know there is a difference between discussing abstract ideas about bullying and addressing the bullying itself, or certainly any real victims. There is only one appropriate response to such tragedies. We feel the same about that.
Mary mentioned cyber-bullying before. Here is an example of it. What makes it worse is that it isn’t perpetrated by some teenager, but an adult, attorney.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/28/michigan.justice.blog/index.html?hpt=C1
Does anyone know of programs (aimed at children) for countering this sort of bullying?
Cyber bullying. Yes, a growing problem. Happens with kids texting each other, too.
Though we may not think of it often or at all, I was reminded this morning in doing some reading on the subject that even teachers can be bullies. I had one of those in first/second grade, believe it or not. Most people think I am just making it up or I had flights of childhood fancy when I relate some of the things she did to us little kids in the classroom. And I was specifically harmed by her during two separate incidents I will never forget. She would have been fired in today’s climate. Maybe even prosecuted. I kid you not. The woman had serious problems. It took me a lifetime to forgive her.