Post Secret Fridays - Issue 113

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

 

On Back of Card:  "sometimes the darkness is too dark"

 

See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.

Want to see older Post Secret Friday issues?
Click my Post Secret Logo Below.

Quoted - Winona Ryder on Being Bullied in High School

“I was wearing an old Salvation Army shop boy’s suit. As I went to the bathroom I heard people saying, ‘Hey, faggot.’ They slammed my head into a locker. I fell to the ground and they started to kick the shit out of me. I had to have stitches. The school kicked me out – not the bullies. Years later, I went to a coffee shop and I ran into one of the girls who’d kicked me, and she said, ‘Winona, Winona, can I have your autograph?’ And I said, ‘Do you remember me? Remember in seventh grade you beat up that kid?’ And she said, ‘Kind of.’ And I said, ‘That was me. Go fuck yourself.’”
  
                        – Winona Ryder on being bullied in High School.

Post Secret Fridays - Issue 083

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

 

See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.

Join the 200,000+ people who have downloaded the new PostSecret App.

Want to see older Post Secret Friday issues? Go here.

Quoted - Zachary Quinto on Coming Out Earlier Today

"When i found out that jamey rodemeyer killed himself - i felt deeply troubled.  but when i found out that jamey rodemeyer had made an it gets better video only months before taking his own life - i felt indescribable despair.  i also made an it gets better video last year - in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time.  but in light of jamey's death - it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it - is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality.  our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country.  gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying.  parents need to teach their children principles of respect and acceptance.  we are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world.  we are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government.  i believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society - and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.  jamey rodemeyer's life changed mine.  and while his death only makes me wish that i had done this sooner - i am eternally grateful to him for being the catalyst for change within me.  now i can only hope to serve as the same catalyst for even one other person in this world.  that - i believe - is all that we can ask of ourselves and of each other." zq.

-By Zachary Quinto on October 16, 2011 8:26 AM

The Bully Project Trailer

click to enlarge

If you're reading this I want you to click on that picture above and read what I circled in Red.  If your child has to resort to posting videos on YouTube and make a similar statement, you're doing something wrong.

I have two short sentences for you - If you're a parent, you should know better.  If you're a bully, blame your parents.

I grew up being bullied by classmates.  I know how it feels to be made fun of, picked on, hit, kicked, spit on, laughed at, the list goes on.  I can't even count the number of times I contemplated suicide, and if you know me personally today, you would never have thought that.  

You can also be bullied later in life as well. If you're in a relationship where your partner makes fun of you in front of other people, or mocks you for gaining weight, that's a bully.  If you make jokes about the person you love and then say, "I was just playing" - You're a bully.

"More than 18 million young people across the US will be bullied this year. This alarming documentary takes us into the disquieting day-to-day lives of five kids and their families over the course of a school year. Two families are left devastated by their sons' suicide, while one mother faces her 14-year-old daughter's incarceration after she threatens her bullies with a gun. Rare access to the Sioux City Community School District captures up close and disturbing 'on the ground' footage of bullying in classrooms, playgrounds, cafeterias, and school buses. Kids who are made into outcasts at school become the film's heroes as they defend their right to be different and courageously give testimony to the trauma and dangers of severe bullying. " - The Bully Project

Kid Who Body-slammed His Bully Speaks Out

After years of tormenting and being picked on, 15-year old Casey Heynes snapped, and body-slammed his bully onto concrete.  The video, which I blogged about last week, became an internet sensation.

In an interview last night, Casey stated he had been taunted for years, because of his weight, and been duct-taped to a pole at one time.   He said that while he was glad for the support, he had actually contemplated suicide last year.

In the past, he usually let bygones, be bygones, and never retaliated for what these boys did to him.  But something happened to him that fateful day when he grabbed his bully and slammed him to the ground.  Casey just snapped.

"He just came up out of nowhere and grabbed me by the shirt and then he punched me in the face. Then he went for a second hit, and I blocked it," Casey recounted.

"The third hit, I don't know if he connected, and then the fourth and fifth hit me, and then I actually snapped and grabbed him," he said.

Catch the interview here, and decide, should Casey be punished for what he did?

Kid Can't Take It Any Longer and Body Slams His Bully

How much can a kid take?  How long before the ramifications of a bully's actions take an affect on a child?  I wasn't bullied often, probably more so from family members than schoolmates.  In either case, while I don't condone violence, defending oneself is extremely important.  This kid allowed the bully to berate and punch him several times; the end result was the bully getting what he asked for.  True, the situation could have been more serious, but what was the kid to do?  He couldn't take it any longer, and resorted to body slamming him.

 

Over the past few months we have been hearing stories of teenage boys and/or girls committing suicide.  All this, due to being bullied throughout their childhood and with the inability to cope with the humiliation any longer.  How would you feel if you're children were being mistreated or picked on in school? Would you defend your sister or brother if they were ridiculed and laughed at, or kicked and spit on?  Bullying can carry on to adulthood as well.  I have family that still pick on each other to this day, and these are 30 or 40 year old men. Seriously, grow up people. Bullying is not fun.  And especially when it's directed at you.