America needs Day of Silence for victims of bullies

posted 06:56 AM 04/23
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Remember how people used to joke about somebody "going postal" if he or she got angry enough to pull out a semiautomatic and open fire? Postal workers don't seem to top the headlines for violence anymore; now it's middle and high school kids.

Sometimes I wonder if my brother Jeff would have inflicted some .357 vengeance on his bullies had he attended elementary school now instead of in the '70s. Our dad had graduated from goose, elk, and boar rifle hunting to grizzly bear bow hunting, so my brother had access to an arsenal of weapons.

He also had ample reason for seeking revenge.

The kids called him "Jelly bean Jeff" (a surprisingly vicious nickname at DeVargas Elementary) due to a little tummy-chub, and I still bristle thinking about those smug sixth-grade weasels forcing him to walk around with an orange cone on his head at recess, or bruising him during dodge ball target practice, or lacerating his inner lips against his braces during fist fights.

Why they chose Jeff instead of the guy with webbed toes or the lion-maned girl who smelled like old urine, I'll never know. Not that those other kids deserved bullying; I don't even think adults who wear fur or drive Hummers deserve it — I'll gladly let the H2 owner rescue me when our neighborhood's water tower collapses in the next earthquake.

Some people make easier targets than others, and the youth can spot and exploit vulnerabilities almost as fast as — well — as us adults. We're just more subtle about it, shrouding it in political correctness or marketing schemes.

We ridicule women with "muffin-tops" spilling over hipster jeans, Activia-eaters, speed-walkers, the cat lady, Texans, home-schoolers, hoarders on Oprah, Wal-Mart shoppers, Subway's Jared, Britney Spears. Stay-at-home moms criticize working moms, and working moms belittle Mr. Moms.

I could be attacked for capitalizing "Mr. Mom" but not the other moms in that last sentence.

Neighborhoods unite against people who keep dogs that bite, and shun people who euthanize dogs that bite. A friend of mine faced threats and intimidation when she avoided manning her daughter's Girl Scout cookie booth at Safeway.

She caved.

I was heartened to hear about Friday's 20th annual Day of Silence, where altruistic high school and college kids plan to protest the bullying of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students with a daylong pact of silence.

My question, however, is — why the qualifier? Why can't the day protest bullying of all students, including the girl carrying a Bible around campus, the guys fantasizing chess strategy, halitosis guy who cries easily, Sasquatch-girl and kids whose bodies resemble jelly beans? Haven't they endured commensurate suffering?

Jeff did.

With a rich history of righting the wrongs of our society — slavery, subjugation of women, child labor, religious persecution — America needs a Day of Silence in defense of all who are bullied in the school system. The Day of Silence is a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN — run by grown-ups). Let's include more than just kids with sexual orientation differences in the inspiring Friday Day of Silence. After all, isn't that a vital political issue to all of us, shedding the United States' world-class bully persona?

Jill Wellock, a local freelance writer, serves on The Olympian's Board of Contributors and can be reached at mjwellock@aol.com.

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