Accept Me, Please
Recently, our neighborhood experienced a great tragedy. A beautiful, young teenage girl committed suicide. I don’t know the reasons why, but the inevitable question that was first expressed by many was, “Was she bullied?’
Bullying is an epidemic here in our nation. In one study, roughly 49% of children grades 4–12 reported being bullied at least once in the last month by other students at their school.
That’s nearly half!?! What the …!?!
We’ve seen emotional stories on shows such as XFactor in 2012 where Jillian Jensen‘s story was shared with the whole country.
There’s real pain, real emotions there.
However, now more than ever we have the youth of the world standing up to fight back against bullying. And, I think that is what it is going to take. Us adults can only do so much to fix the problem.
One duo speaking up against bullying is Bars & Melody, made up of Leondre Devries (“Bars’) and Charlie Lenehan (“Melody’). In the Britain’s Got Talent (series 8) (2014), they were sent straight from auditions to the semi-finals for their performance of their own version of “Hope“.
Even though I’ve heard this numerous times, it still gets me every time Leondre pleads to the bully to, “accept me, please’.
Words can be weapons.
She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.
Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing
They can also heal.
Consider this wonderful project done by a youth group in Utah designed to see the impact of positive words on people.
Let’s use our words to build others up, not tear them down.
Official Video: Bars and Melody – Hopeful
Jan 13, 2015 16:16
How sad. I must admit that I was bullied a little in Elementary School. That being said, I always had at least a few friends and all of my family to turn to even when people were mean. I can’t believe that the percentage of bullying is almost 50%. It makes me really worry about my nieces and nephews.
Jan 13, 2015 16:57
Yes, it is sad, but there’s a reason Bars and Melody’s song is named “Hopeful”. There is hope, and it’s beautiful to see what some people are doing to combat it. It certainly gives me hope for the future.