Province wide antibullying day

[Ms Erica Phoenix]

(AUTHOR'S DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS NOT INTENDED TO BE SELF-PROMOTIONAL, NOR IS IT MEANT TO INFLAME CONTROVERSY.)

Dear Bullies*,

I know you. I see you. I recognize you. I am not afraid of you.

My first bully pushed me to the ground because I wouldn't let him bully my friend for being a 'Paki'.
My second bully threw me up against a portable classroom wall because I didn't serve a class detention she thought I had caused.
My third bully told me repeatedly "If you'd just lose 10 some weight, we'd be so much happier and you'd be much more useful to my career!'
My fourth bully told me to just stop feeling anxious and depressed and get myself to class more often.
My fifth bully told me the type of cancer I was afraid might be growing in my throat was 'nothing to worry about'.
My sixth bully told me that it didn't matter that some students had treated my belongings like garbage because he didn't know if I'd be coming back for it.
My seventh bully told me that I'd have to do all the tests that I had missed while being away for 12 weeks after two surgeries to remove tumours from three organs.
My eighth bully told me "After all, you can hardly blame them for (treating you the way they did), because after all, who wants a person (with a condition like yours)(doing your job?)

The only difference is that the first 3 bullies were when I was a student in school. The other four were when I was employed in the public school system. "Pink Shirt Anti Bullying Day" is a farce as long as bullies still RUN the schools and they do. They become principals. Not all of them; just enough. I don't kowtow to bullies anymore. Take me on verbally, and I will, politely or otherwise, hand you your own ass on a plate, and call you out on what you are. You do not scare me, you have no power over me. I will not back away or back down from you. You will not hurt people I care about, or I will shred you for it. If you see enough pink shirts today, you might start to get the message. If you're wearing one, SHAME ON YOU.

*I have called no names, I have pointed no fingers, I have not implied any actual individuals living or dead that might read this are, in fact, bullies.

 

[Ms Erica Phoenix]

The internet make bullying interesting because you can see it and follow it. On the internet it seems that people will turn into a bully with an "eye for an eye" attitude.
Your honesty makes me want to tell you about myself. I would never call myself privileged if anything I faced an incredible amount of diversity and I am sure people saw me as the perfect victim, being on my own at such a young age. But after a lot of close calls I was able to pull through and sit where I am today. I had a lot of naysayers and ran into some evil people along the way but, how does that saying go.. what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And I never wish a tough life on anyone, i just hope they are strong enough to see it through.

The quote from Nietzsche, is, as I understand, best translated as "That which does not destroy us, makes us stronger." I don't like Nietzsche; he was a terrible anti-Semite. I prefer these words from Ernest Hemingway instead; "We all break; afterwards, some of us are stronger in the broken places".

Enough philosophy...I'm going to my happy place in front of the fire to paint my toenails pink and think happy thoughts about unicorns and rainbows...

 

[*emmanuelle]

I don't like Nietzsche; he was a terrible anti-Semite.

Lots of reasons to dislike Nietzsche, but he was not an anti-Semite. He was definitely anti-woman though!

Personally I like that Hemingway quote better too

 

[Ms Erica Phoenix]

You're right, I stand corrected.

 

[bcneil]

Wow, jan brewer the voice of reason against Christian bullies.......

 

[vancity_cowboy]

Amanda Todd's mom Carol fears term 'bullying' losing impact

Mother of bullying victim speaks out on Pink Shirt Day, says focus should be on kindness, respect
CBC News Posted: Feb 26, 2014 2:55 PM PT| Last Updated: Feb 26, 2014 5:29 PM PT

Students and advocates rallied in Vancouver this morning and the colour pink poured onto streets and school hallways across Canada, but one of B.C.'s most prominent anti-bullying activists is worried the movement is losing its impact.

Amanda Todd's mother, Carol, says she fears anti-bullying campaigns are losing their clout and youth are becoming desensitized to the word "bullying."

Today marks the seventh annual Pink Shirt Day, a national campaign to raise awareness and money to help prevent bullying.

Carol Todd has been an anti-bullying advocate since her daughter, Amanda, took her own life in October 2012 after posting a YouTube video detailing her torment at the hands of bullies.

She worries kids are starting to disconnect from anti-bullying campaigns.

"I know sometimes the word bullying is being used a bit too much sometimes and kids, older kids especially roll their eyes at it," said Todd.

Todd wants the focus to shift to positive messaging.

"We have to look at the other aspect of what bullying entails and that's about kindness and respect."

Pink shirt day began in 2007

Pink shirt day began in 2007 at a Nova Scotia high school after co-founders Travis Price and David Shepherd saw a grade nine student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt.

"Its unfortunate that we have to have those tragedies [like] the Amanda Todd's, the Rehtaeh Parsons to push ourselves further to do more about it," said Price, who is in Vancouver today raising awareness.

"It's unfortunate that we need to have those incidents to start the conversation all over again."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/amanda-todd-s-mom-carol-fears-term-bullying-losing-impact-1.2552622

i wish i could find the thread, but i remember somebody on this board predicting exactly what mrs. todd is talking about

 

[mounty]

I got involved with anti bulling. I even wore a pink shirt at work not my thing but did it anyways for support.

 

[cherise]

I got involved with anti bulling. I even wore a pink shirt at work not my thing but did it anyways for support.

thats awesome mounty :thumb::thumb:
(and im sure you looked very handsome in it )

 

[mounty]

Thanks Cherise for your kind words. I will need to pay you a visit again.

thats awesome mounty :thumb::thumb:
(and im sure you looked very handsome in it )

 

[mounty]

thanks cherise for the kind words.

thats awesome mounty :thumb::thumb:
(and im sure you looked very handsome in it )

 

[sbill]

That which does not kill me...

"That which does not kill me, makes me stronger"

This is one of those things I had heard many times, read on a few T-shirts, thought a little odd (imagined Wiley Coyote saying it, staggering off after another anvil hit his head...), never thought much on the source, or whether it might be misquoted. Seemed like a desparate core to grab onto in desparate times to build self-sufficiency when there was no help coming...

Today, I am elucidated to some degree by this thread, and of course went a-googling to seek confirmation. The concensus is that this is indeed (mangled) from Niesche (did not originate with Kanye West!). However I found the following answer to the question "where did this phrase originate?) even more eye-opening:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060711032417AAn6OvK

Best AnswerAsker's Choice

Monso Orda answered 8 years ago

It's one of those untrue statements you should be glad people believe. Would you rather people go around lamenting that adversity makes them weak?
If Americans did that we'd be a nation full of floppers.

This saying is the eigth in an odd list of 44 aphorisms from Nietzsche's book Twilight of the Idols. "Maxims and Arrows," he calls them. Maxims seem to
refer to untrue statements that people believe. Arrows are farefetched statements that are true in an ironic or surprising way, the implication of the
name being that they will pierce people's complacency. Neitzche intersperses these with snarky but obscure coments.

Here are a couple of his arrows. Number nine: "Help yourself, then everyone will help you. Principle of brotherly love." Number twenty-two is <<
"Evil men have no songs." How is it, then, that the Russians have songs?>> Here's one I like, number 14: "What? You search? You would multiply
yourself by ten, by a hundred? You seek followers? Seek zeros!"

"That which does not kill me" is not meant to encompass the entire class of such things. Rather Nietzsche evokes hardships that are nearly fatal,
probably experientially or emotionally rather than literally so.

Of course the statement isn't true. People are usually weakened, not strengthened, by repeated aversity. They become depressed, suicidal,
unproductive, brittle, bitter, unreliable.

Funny how a statement coined by a German for its ironic falsity becomes a cherished affirmation here in America. That's what it is, really, an
affirmation. Affirmations are always untrue, otherwise why would people need to repeat them? The idea is to say something you know is untrue
but that you wish were true enough times that you either begin deceiving yorurself, or you develop enough strength and resolve to achieve it.
One or the other. Self-deceptoin, blind strength, cannot separate the two, the American way.

As such its a useful lie. As I said, better people try to be strong than whine and give up.

Neitzche, for his part, thought his role was to destroy his era's convenient lies, like the belief that God exists. Ambitious guy, Neitche. We've just
coopted him for our own purposes.

 

[Ms Erica Phoenix]

And don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Teach your children there are consequences to their actions while they are young.

If they don't learn from you, their teachers will have to impose consequences, or their boss, or LE, or a judge ...

When children are not taught consequences, they become difficult to teach...if none of them are, it becomes nearly impossible. When the child has consequences imposed upon the school for the behaviour, and you as the parent blame the school...

 

[sbill]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVaqZajq-I