Bullied to Death

I listened to a news report this morning about a 14 year old gay young man who suffered so much bullying by students at his school that he was unable to cope anymore and committed suicide. The fact that he was gay isn't as important as the fact that his teen peers saw his "differentness" and pecked at him maliciously because of it. His being different in any way would have drawn their cruelty because that seems to be part of our human nature and one we should be working to change.

It's difficult to imagine what it's like to be bullied because it never happened to me. I was a fighter who wouldn't have stood still for it but not everyone is able to do that. I had lots of friends in school, too, but what of the "different" child who is very sensitive and doesn't have enough close friends to build him/her up? To be different and feel as though it's you against the world...it can be too much for a young person to live with.

People of all ages can be terribly cruel in their judgements of others but teens are worst of all. They form packs and often have mob mentalities, following the mindset of their pack leaders. If that pack leader chooses to pick on the "different" one, the rest will follow suit and, being a group, will make that poor soul's life miserable. Teens often haven't developed their own consciences enough to stand up to the pack when they do wrong.

I wish they didn't stress that this young man who committed suicide was gay. He was picked on because he was different and didn't fit inside the narrow parameters that most of society call normal. We have a natural aversion to what we consider abnormal and it takes education and maturity to broaden our borders. Unfortunately, human beings like to think that they're better than someone else, anyone else, and there lies our propensity to bully.

I don't think anything much will change because of this young man's death, at least not in the near future. It might take decades or centuries before humans have evolved enough to be more accepting of anything other than the norm. Like I said, it will require education and remodeling but that's an ongoing process. It would be interesting to be able to jump ahead 500 years and see whether we've progressed or regressed on the evolutionary scale.

There is one thing that will shut up any bully, though, and that's the immediate response of his peers who won't tolerate seeing anyone bullied. In the end, it probably comes down to peer pressure that will stop bullying.