Are,Turning,Our,Children,Into, family Are We Turning Our Children Into Bullies?
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Researching for an article, I spent a few weeks in the blogospherelooking for information about the leading presidential candidates. Myintention was to learn the candidates' positions on issues that affectthe self-employed. What I found instead shocked me. My search made itpainfully apparent that grownups in the blogosphere are no nicer thanbullies on an elementary school playground.I suppose you couldlook at it as pure genius - Post an article to your blog poking alittle fun at individuals, groups, or ideologies that readers love tohate. Then watch the site counter and number of bigoted comments rise.It is the seemingly perfect formula for successful and profitableblogging, but it comes at a greater price.Words do not staywords forever. They lead to action. In a sense, hateful words willeventually become the proverbial sticks and stones that do the bonebreaking. On a similar note, the Mormon chapel behind my home wasvandalized a few weeks ago. Mormon buildings in various states havebeen vandalized and/or burned over the past month. I don't know whatinvestigators found as the fire catalyst of the house of worship burnedin Arizona, but I believe it was fueled by a rising acceptance ofMormon bashing during this presidential campaign.A climate ofmean-spirited political bantering also encourages our children to teaseand bully. Bobby Barvish of The Muslim Forum of Utah calls this"trickle down bigotry". In a recent interview with me, Mr. Barvishagreed that current prejudices blatantly expressed during ourpresidential primary campaigns have worsened the atmosphere forlaw-abiding Muslim Americans and their children.Don't particularly care about bigotry toward Muslims or Mormons?Well, what about your own kids?Don'tthink for one minute that we grown-ups can go around name-calling andnot expect our nation's children to do the same. The message we aresending our children is that it is okay to tease, pick on, make fun of,discriminate against, or hate someone because of their name, theirreligion, their gender, their race, their general beliefs, etc.Accordingto Washington State Lt. Gov. Barc Owen: "Bullying occurs once everyseven minutes on school playgrounds...By the age 24, 60% of identifiedchildhood bullies (are) convicted of a crime."-http://www.ltgov.wa.gov/speeches/OregonWaSheriffsConference.htmlPerhapsa no less dangerous bully is now the cyber kind. Cyber bullying wasbrought to national attention with the suicide death of middle schoolstudent, Megan Meier, after being tormented on MySpace. According topolls, 90% of kids say that they have been hurt online in some way. In2007 alone, 32% of teenagers claim to have been victims ofcyberbullying (CNN.com).If you want to see prime examples ofcyber bullying, type Hillary Clinton's name into a search engine.You'll find sites whose sole purpose is to make fun of her. (And wewonder why kids today can be so mean...) While you are at it, check outhow bloggers treat Mike Huckabee's sons. (Let's not settle forbelittling a candidate's religion, middle name, heritage, or maritalissues. Let's beat up on their kids to make sure that we havecompletely desecrated everything that they hold dear.)Certainsubjects should be off-limits out of common decency. Running for officedoesn't give America the right to rip to pieces everything that issacred or important to a candidate.I am not implying thatpointing out a candidate's policies or behavior of which you do notagree amounts to bigotry or cruelty. I am simply saying that leavingcomments in blogs or on YouTube proclaiming things like "all Mormonsare bunch of #!*% idiots that deserve what they get", "you can't trusta candidate whose name sounds like a #&%* terrorist", or "thatwoman is an ugly #&!* and needs an exorcism" is eventually going tolead to more prison over-crowding. (And cyber journalists/commentatorsposting articles to incite such comments for profit and personal gainare just as bad if not worse!)Treat candidates online the waythat you would want your children to be treated on MySpace. It ispossible to intelligently discuss differences in opinion andphilosophy. Doing so will teach our children how to settle problemswithout resorting to name calling and profanity.To learn moreabout the effects of the politics of hate visithttp://workfromhomechoices.com/blog/viral-blogging-what-is-the-price-of-profiting-from-the-politics-of-bigotry-and-hate/.
Are,Turning,Our,Children,Into,