Are We Turning Our Children Into Bullies?

How often do words change to actions?  Normally they do not stay words forever. They lead to action. In a sense, hateful words will eventually become the proverbial sticks and stones that do the bone breaking.

Researching for an article, I spent a few weeks in the blogosphere looking for information about the leading presidential candidates. My intention was to learn the candidates' positions on issues that affect the self-employed. What I found instead shocked me. My search made it painfully apparent that grownups in the blogosphere are no nicer than bullies on an elementary school playground.

I suppose you could look at it as pure genius - Post an article to your blog poking a little fun at individuals, groups, or ideologies that readers love to hate. Then watch the site counter and number of bigoted comments rise. It is the seemingly perfect formula for successful and profitable blogging, but it comes at a greater price.

Words do not stay words forever. They lead to action. In a sense, hateful words will eventually become the proverbial sticks and stones that do the bone breaking. On a similar note, the Mormon chapel behind my home was vandalized a few weeks ago. Mormon buildings in various states have been vandalized and/or burned over the past month. I don't know what investigators found as the fire catalyst of the house of worship burned in Arizona, but I believe it was fueled by a rising acceptance of Mormon bashing during this presidential campaign.

A climate of mean-spirited political bantering also encourages our children to tease and bully. Bobby Barvish of The Muslim Forum of Utah calls this "trickle down bigotry". In a recent interview with me, Mr. Barvish agreed that current prejudices blatantly expressed during our presidential primary campaigns have worsened the atmosphere for law-abiding Muslim Americans and their children.

Don't particularly care about bigotry toward Muslims or Mormons?

Well, what about your own kids?

Don't think for one minute that we grown-ups can go around name-calling and not expect our nation's children to do the same. The message we are sending our children is that it is okay to tease, pick on, make fun of, discriminate against, or hate someone because of their name, their religion, their gender, their race, their general beliefs, etc.

According to Washington State Lt. Gov. Barc Owen: "Bullying occurs once every seven minutes on school playgrounds...By the age 24, 60% of identified childhood bullies (are) convicted of a crime." -http://www.ltgov.wa.gov/speeches/OregonWaSheriffsConference.html

Perhaps a no less dangerous bully is now the cyber kind. Cyber bullying was brought to national attention with the suicide death of middle school student, Megan Meier, after being tormented on MySpace. According to polls, 90% of kids say that they have been hurt online in some way. In 2007 alone, 32% of teenagers claim to have been victims of cyberbullying (CNN.com).

If you want to see prime examples of cyber bullying, type Hillary Clinton's name into a search engine. You'll find sites whose sole purpose is to make fun of her. (And we wonder why kids today can be so mean...) While you are at it, check out how bloggers treat Mike Huckabee's sons. (Let's not settle for belittling a candidate's religion, middle name, heritage, or marital issues. Let's beat up on their kids to make sure that we have completely desecrated everything that they hold dear.)

Certain subjects should be off-limits out of common decency. Running for office doesn't give America the right to rip to pieces everything that is sacred or important to a candidate.

I am not implying that pointing out a candidate's policies or behavior of which you do not agree amounts to bigotry or cruelty. I am simply saying that leaving comments in blogs or on YouTube proclaiming things like "all Mormons are bunch of #!*% idiots that deserve what they get", "you can't trust a candidate whose name sounds like a #&%* terrorist", or "that woman is an ugly #&!* and needs an exorcism" is eventually going to lead to more prison over-crowding. (And cyber journalists/commentators posting articles to incite such comments for profit and personal gain are just as bad if not worse!)

Treat candidates online the way that you would want your children to be treated on MySpace. It is possible to intelligently discuss differences in opinion and philosophy. Doing so will teach our children how to settle problems without resorting to name calling and profanity.

To learn more about the effects of the politics of hate visit http://workfromhomechoices.com/blog/viral-blogging-what-is-the-price-of-profiting-from-the-politics-of-bigotry-and-hate/ .

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