Hath not a...
This is my response to the recent surge in gay teen suicides, as I posted on Facebook, and as I'll put here.
I've seen all this on the news already, and each time, it's debilitating to even think of it. The fact that coming out as gay is already extremely stressful on anyone who does it, and that societal pressure is already malicious enough, to top it all off you have these cowards who finally deliver that blow that is enough to fracture a person's soul. How convoluted on the inside do you have to be to do such a thing? Wasn't it enough decades ago, and even centuries ago to damage someone because of what they were?
It's just a sickening thing to think that perhaps some of the people I know may be doing things like this. Cyberbullying, and bullying in general is a cowardly, horrible act, and I think nothing less than the worst of someone who does it. I wish there was a way I could truly speak out for the victims, but I'm only one voice and ten fingers.
The evidence is harrowing. Honestly, how can you fall back on your religion and so-called 'morals' by saying that gays should suffer because God says so, if those very same people are now in graves by their own hand? Can you honestly claim that God would support a young man or woman taking his or her own life because of judgment from others? I could never say so, and I never will say so. If you are honestly a coward enough to damage someone from the safe shield of your computer screen, then I would want to see you at their funeral, and ask you to your face if you still think it's right, and if you think it was only fair that they should die.
I wish I could do this any other way than through a computer, but if there was a microphone in front of me, and a full audience, I would say the same exact thing. I would scream it to the world, if I could. We aren't any better than our predecessors. No matter where you look through history, people harmed and killed others like merciless monsters for beliefs, choices, and even things like skin color and disabilities. It's a horrible thing to think that we haven't left that age, and that we still select certain traits to bite at because they aren't like the rest of us. Well, hell to the rest of us then, because one day, we'll look back at this moment and time and be appalled with ourselves. We'll say that we never thought anything less of someone for loving another of their gender, and that we were so shocked and horrified at those barbarians. Right? Of course we will, because we're human beings and that's just what we seem to do. One day, no one will admit to think it's wrong, and some of those will be liars with just as much venom in their fangs as they have now.
I honestly yearn for a way to say that there's a humanitarian stance to take, but there is none. I'm not angry or disgusted with anyone for their skin color, or their religion, or their sexual orientation, or anything like that. I'm angry and disgusted at the people who bully those very people, and who think them to be less than human. I don't care about your political stance, or what your religion says is right and wrong, or what your parents told you. I care that all humans are indeed equal, and I hope that some day, we'll all take a step back and realize that our utter cowardice is what conceals that most sacred truth; we're all the same.
I'll end this note with my personal favorite Shakespeare quote from The Merchant of Venice.
Shylock:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
I've seen all this on the news already, and each time, it's debilitating to even think of it. The fact that coming out as gay is already extremely stressful on anyone who does it, and that societal pressure is already malicious enough, to top it all off you have these cowards who finally deliver that blow that is enough to fracture a person's soul. How convoluted on the inside do you have to be to do such a thing? Wasn't it enough decades ago, and even centuries ago to damage someone because of what they were?
It's just a sickening thing to think that perhaps some of the people I know may be doing things like this. Cyberbullying, and bullying in general is a cowardly, horrible act, and I think nothing less than the worst of someone who does it. I wish there was a way I could truly speak out for the victims, but I'm only one voice and ten fingers.
The evidence is harrowing. Honestly, how can you fall back on your religion and so-called 'morals' by saying that gays should suffer because God says so, if those very same people are now in graves by their own hand? Can you honestly claim that God would support a young man or woman taking his or her own life because of judgment from others? I could never say so, and I never will say so. If you are honestly a coward enough to damage someone from the safe shield of your computer screen, then I would want to see you at their funeral, and ask you to your face if you still think it's right, and if you think it was only fair that they should die.
I wish I could do this any other way than through a computer, but if there was a microphone in front of me, and a full audience, I would say the same exact thing. I would scream it to the world, if I could. We aren't any better than our predecessors. No matter where you look through history, people harmed and killed others like merciless monsters for beliefs, choices, and even things like skin color and disabilities. It's a horrible thing to think that we haven't left that age, and that we still select certain traits to bite at because they aren't like the rest of us. Well, hell to the rest of us then, because one day, we'll look back at this moment and time and be appalled with ourselves. We'll say that we never thought anything less of someone for loving another of their gender, and that we were so shocked and horrified at those barbarians. Right? Of course we will, because we're human beings and that's just what we seem to do. One day, no one will admit to think it's wrong, and some of those will be liars with just as much venom in their fangs as they have now.
I honestly yearn for a way to say that there's a humanitarian stance to take, but there is none. I'm not angry or disgusted with anyone for their skin color, or their religion, or their sexual orientation, or anything like that. I'm angry and disgusted at the people who bully those very people, and who think them to be less than human. I don't care about your political stance, or what your religion says is right and wrong, or what your parents told you. I care that all humans are indeed equal, and I hope that some day, we'll all take a step back and realize that our utter cowardice is what conceals that most sacred truth; we're all the same.
I'll end this note with my personal favorite Shakespeare quote from The Merchant of Venice.
Shylock:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.