BULLYING -- THE UNKINDEST CUT OF THEM ALL
If you look at the statistics, you might think that bullying
is the number one sport in America
rather than football. There are far too many incidents, and a surprising number
of them lead to suicide. Each year, 750,000 people attempt suicide in the U.S.
and 30,000 of them succeed. No one knows how many of the suicides among
adolescents are caused by bullying, but the numbers would be astronomical.
Not all bullying leads to something so shocking, but
bullying is never a positive thing. Much of it is subtle, but it still hurts
those who are victimized. Most of us have experienced it at one time or the
other. It might happen to the only girl who wears glasses in her class, and her
classmates call her Old Foureyes. No one remembers that she won the spelling
bee two years in a row, or that she has the best voice in the chorus. They
sometimes forget her real name. Or you might be the kid who had to move to a
new school because your father got a better job. Your grandparents came from Asia ,
and the kids call you Hung Chow and pull their eyes up at the corners and make
funny faces behind your back. Or maybe you are standing in front of your hotel
waiting to go to a speaking engagement at the civic center, and an overzealous
cop body slams you, or maybe you are the cop and you stop a motorist on a
lonely stretch of highway. As you approach the window, you see a large pistol
aimed at your face, and you think about your wife and your two children . . .
I could go on forever, and I do to some extent in my newest
novel, Blindsided. It is about bullying, the unfair judgment of others just
because they perceive us as being different. Some of you will read Blindsided,
and you will say that’s not so bad. It just happens. Suck it up. Others of you
will see it differently as you remember your pain so vividly that it will jar
your back teeth loose. Go to AmazonScout’s website and read the excerpt, and
then click the ‘Nominate Me’ button which will give me a chance to win a
publishing contract. Thank you for listening and God bless.
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