Friday, August 27, 2010

Better Together

In Bianca Hseuh's blog "Odd Girl Out", she summed up her response to bullying in this simple, short sentence:

If they have the right to mock me, then I believe I also have the right to stand up for myself.

Her statement correlates directly with number 6 on ASTI's constitution: speak up for yourself and others.  I agree completely with Bianca in the fact that she has the right to stand up for herself. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it seems, which is why number 6 on ASTI's consitution might be one of the hardest to abide by.

Speaking up takes a lot of courage. In a perfect scenario, speaking up will often times leave the perpetrator feeling remorseful about the way they made a victim feel. However in the nasty world of high school where drama is constant, speaking up directly can often times lead to even worst consequences. The bully may use it against her victim by teasing them or even taking offense to it and becoming more harsh with their attacks.  Now standing up for others? I would imagine that being ten times harder than speaking up for my own self.

So how can we speak up for ourselves and for others? I feel like the only way to be effective in speaking out is to do it together.  So in that sense, number 6 should really be rephrased to "Speak up with eachother" because if a larger group comes together to motion a belief, the message is often times a lot stronger and people have more courage to speak out because they feel a sense of unity with others that they can relate to - others who have also been bullied. 

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