National Day of Silence

I came to this information from another blog I regularly read --don'tgetmestarted.com by Linda Sharp. Google it and you will find a wealth of opinion, humor, and commentary on our lives. She also does some wicked re-caps (or recraps, as she calls them) on Americal Idol.

Anyway, today was a National Day of Silence. This was a day on which mid-school and high-schoold students "tak a vow of silence to bring attention to anti GLBT name-calling, bullying and harrassment at their schools."

WOW.

I graduated from high school in 1971. Of the students I kept contact with after high school, one came out as lesbian, one came out as gay. I was called a lesbian for putting my arm around another girl and comforting her when something went wrong.

Sexuality, indeed, sex was not an overt topic at school. There were the one or two girls who "got in trouble" (notice how it never was the boys?) Drugs and drinking were discussed more freely then sex.

Yes, this was not long after the gay community first began to make themselves visable.

But to me, the striking thing is -- The idea of SILENCE against bullying. From what we see in the news, bullying is the BIG issue today in mid and high school. Bullying. Not mere teasing, not mere "shuning" (which you by-passed by finding a group YOU were comfortable with and ignoring the "in" crowd)

Some of it is due to today's technology. When I stepped off the school bus, I was DONE with dealing with the 7th grade bullies. Today, FaceBook, cell phones, texting, all mean that a child is connected 7/24 to their social circle. Or their social tormentors.

Times like this make me very, very glad I never had kids.

"Stickes and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. " That worked for me, in the 1960's. It doesn't work today.

I applaud all of those students who took the pledge and made today a day of silence in support of those around them who may have a different orientation but are non the less, human, teenagers, angst-ridden (weren't we all) and caring individuals.

Under our clothes, we are all naked. Under our skins, we are all human.

Something to consider.