TASHY HEARS
Last week while looking up to check on the writers of “In this life”, I discoverer that one of them had also written a song which begat an organisation, in the United States, set up to combat bullying. The song is on the left and is called “Don't laugh at me”. Bullying has gone on since time immemorial. The problem today, with social media in particularly, is that it can follow you everywhere and also be quite anonymous. I, like many, suffered mild bullying at school. In fact, in view of what happens today, I wouldn't call it bullying. The macho boys needed to impress their arse-licking followers by showing their strength and picking on someone weaker. In those days though I think it was less nastiness and more this need to look good.
Sometime after this recording, Peter, Paul and Mary started to perform the song and Peter Yarrow, see my 5X7 section, founded an organisation in the States called “Operation Respect”. I'm not going to bother to explain all they do, I'll just give you a link to their website here. I cannot say how much I admire Peter Yarrow for all he has done over the last 50 or so years.
It's getting a bit long today but I finally wanted to link to this young lady, Lizzie Snider. The video shows her singing with the aforementioned Peter Yarrow, but it is after the song that she reveals what she has done to try to combat bullying in schools.
Her organisation, “no one has the power to ruin your day” says it all in its name. Check that one out too.
And I do speak from experience here. I have been bullied through social media and the internet, lies have been told, mixed with just a modicum of truth, to make them look plausible. I'm too old to care but I would love that we have a world where no young person feels bullied, shamed or humiliated by a coward who hides behind the internet. You know who you are, no one else does and, as such, no one has the insight to criticise you, how you look, speak or behave. If you are within the law, you have a fundamental right to be who you are.
