A while back, I submitted a guest post to one of my favorite blogs,
Chin Musik (we've talked about it
before).
I submitted it on May 3, so the timing was right for the topic - but it didn't work out as a guest-post for the blog. I thought I'd share it here today, and take the opportunity to remind you that if you've never checked out Chin Musik - you really should. You can follow the blog, and its author Randy Howard, on facebook
here, and on twitter
here.
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The village where I grew up is small. There’s one school (k-8); there were fifteen kids on the stage when I graduated in 1988. So when I say everyone knows everyone – it’s for real.
In some ways, it’s great; all your friends are close by and there’s always someone looking out for you. In other ways – it sucks. Everyone is the same – so if you’re not like them, you stick out like a sore thumb.
For a long time, I was that sore thumb.
In the fourth grade, our teacher repeated a saying to us over and over again. “Two wrongs don't make a right.” I didn’t really understand; but she said it so often, it stuck with me, anyway.
A few years later, a new girl joined our class. She wasn’t like everyone else – at all. The other girls made fun of her – and for once, left me alone. Did I join in? I’m sure I did. At the very least, I was so relieved not to be on the receiving end that I didn’t do anything to stop them.
Our class trip that year was to an amusement park. Towards the end of the day, I found the new girl on a bench, in tears. She really wanted to go on a ride, but had no one to go with, and she was afraid to go alone. So I went with her.
Suddenly – I understood. The bullying, the nastiness – it sucked. It was wrong of other kids to treat me that way – and I couldn’t make it right by treating someone else the same. You can’t solve a bullying problem by becoming a bully.
In order to make things right – you have to do the right thing.
Nearly 3,000 people were murdered in the attacks on September 11, 2001. Even worse – people took to the streets in celebration of death. They killed the American spirit – they taught us our way was flawed, and that was their victory.
On May 1, 2011, Americans took to the streets and the internet in celebration of a death. We cheered and sang songs; we even made t-shirts. The most wanted, most evil of all the terrorists is dead! It’s finally right!
Or had we become the bully? Did we become the wrong we were looking to right?
