Chronicles of the Daily Grind

Bullying is a form of harassment perpetrated by someone who is in some way more powerful physically or socially than a weaker somebody. The issue here is power, how it is blatantly used to intimidate others and to exalt oneself.

In our Youth Ministry class our professor let us watch a 2002 film which I never heard before. Bang Bang You’re Dead in its title already presents a violent tone. After watching the film I felt the anger surging within for I have identified myself to the lead character.

The film revolves around a teenager called Trevor who threatened to blow up the football team at his school because he was pushed to breaking point by frequent bullying. The movie is set months after, where students are creeped out by him, and think he's going to blow up the school. He is chosen to star in a play called "Bang Bang You're Dead" as the main character, Josh. After parents hear of the play and its suspicious actor, they call for it to be cancelled.

The film also shows Trevor (played by Ben Foster) making friends with the Trogs, a group of outcasts. Towards the end of the film they attempt a school massacre, using a shotgun and two handguns. Knowing of their plot and fearing for the safety of a fellow student/love interest, he stops them. The film ends with Trevor performing the play, and it is indicated that the play was performed at the school despite parents objections. (wikipedia.org)

Bullying can go as far as you’re head is being plunged and flushed in the toilet bowl, your head thrown first inside a trash can, your face forcedly dipped in the urinals, yourself locked in a locker room, your food plate spat and thrown with their garbage, your face splat on a cow dung before a football practice. People around you laugh their hearts out. You felt insignificant. You felt like an outcast. Then you go back home and find yourself in a similar situation when you’re father shouts here and about that you can’t just do anything right, and your mom who just can’t do anything.

I had been in such situation. What is so painful and unbearable is that you can’t fight back. You want to scream and to violently express your disgust and anger and you just can’t do it. They have the power, which makes this life so sickening.

In the 1990s, the United States saw an epidemic of school shootings (of which the most notorious was the Columbine High School massacre). Many of the children behind these shootings claimed that they were victims of bullying and that they resorted to violence only after the school administration repeatedly failed to intervene. In many of these cases, the victims of the shooters sued both the shooters' families and the schools.

But this doesn’t just happen in schools. We find all these prevalent among us. There is a chain of rejection and hate among us which has to be broken. Little acts of hatred could lead to a massive social conflict. Even indifference could lead to war. The reality in our society captures the disease that plagues us.

We strip off all powers and race and color and religion and be what we are: human beings. The we go the basic of promoting peace and love beginning with ourselves.

Posted by brodiz on Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 11:35 AM | Permalink