There were so many bad news stories today. The nuclear nightmare of North Korea The horror of the escalating bloodbath in Iraq. And of course the continuing horror of Stephen Harper.
With his wedge issue law and order show.
And his cheap politics.
But surely the worst story in the world has to be this one.
It's the kind of story that makes you want to give up on humanity. Not only are we torching the future of the children of this planet. We're brutalizing hundreds of millions of them. Encouraging the violence. Ignoring their suffering. What kind of savage monkeys are we?
There is so much to be horrified about. Sex slaves.Genital mutilation. Child soldiers. Child labourers. You can read more about it here.
But because of who I am, and what I went through, this part kind of jumped out at me:
More than 100 countries allow physical punishments such as beating and caning in schools, while violence also occurs in the form of fights and bullying on school playgrounds.
Much of this violence is directed against females and homosexuals, said the study.
And so did this one:
Such violence can leave serious long-term psychological scars which result in increased risky sexual behaviour, substance abuse and violence towards others in adulthood, the report says.
Tell me about it. I've never asked anyone to feel sorry for me. I don't think of myself as a victim. I think I'd rather die. But as I've tried to explain when you bully children, the suffering and the anger can go on and on, long after the bullying stops. There's a price we all pay. I know that and so do these people:
The Report also points out that if you are female or gay the amount of violence you endure in schools depends on how much your government is prepared to help you.
"Sexual and gender-based violence is facilitated by government’s failure to enact and implement laws that provide students with explicit protection from discrimination,"
And if you live in Canada these days you can't count on any help from Stephen Harper and his thug government.
The evil theocons are trying to turn the clock back on women's rights. They have fought any attempt to help bullied gay children. For those who survive the brutality they would deny them the comfort and love of getting married. They want the suffering to go on and on. That's why they're evil. That's why they've got to go. Before they turn our country into a jungle.
Until these inhuman swine are driven from power, a lot of bullied children in this country are just going to have to be very brave and stand up to the bullies by themselves. It's really too awful to ask a battered and humiliated child to do that. But you know what? Sometimes it works....
Hey it's a start....
Too bad that standing up for what's right can't make us all bigger than we are. Big enough to save our future. Big enough to save the children.....
Human enough to save us all...
and oh how sad when those who were targeted as children never learn to break the cycle.
ReplyDeleteharper and his cronies are the abusers. you told it. and ask me. ask the friend of the family who sexually abused me and my sister and later went on to become c.e.o. of a canadian corporation who supports the cons. ach, i could go into relatives and the phycical and mental/emotional violence, but hey, i stand tall.
we all can stand tall. and we are. and the proponents of the system are going to fall very very far and hard when their false foundations get pulled out from under them.