Rick Mercer Lays It Down (Again)

[grav_ity]

Rick Mercer has issued another challenge, this one to pretty much everyone in the world. Instead of promising "it gets better", make it better.

(I particularly like the part about treating the bullies at least as severely as if they'd vandalized the cafeteria. BECAUSE REALLY.)

Comments

[bookwormprinces.livejournal.com]

Bullying of any kind is awful. Cyber-bullying in particular is horrible. We discussed it at length in several of my classes last year. It's so hard to track down which kids said what and decide how they should be held accountable.

I disagree with what he said about adults not needing role models, though. 'Cause I think we all still need someone to look up to.

[shadadukal]

it's not like the risks for adults are completely nil. Not everybody thinks it's worthwhile to be martyred for their sexuality (I mean that in a literal sense in many cases...). The implication here is that somehow grownup gays have passed the age at which the public will harm them for their sexuality.... OR that they SHOULD PUT THEMSELVES IN HARM'S WAY, like it's their duty as grownups to lose their jobs, their social network, their family, etc. as a result of their sexuality.

This is a good point and I agree, which is why I am not out as bisexual offline. But perhaps it is different for people on the public stage. Maybe they won't lose their jobs so easily. I guess it depends on what they are doing...

[shadadukal]

Like bookwormprincess, I disagree about adults not needing role models. Maybe some don't, but I sure need some!

What he said can be extended to all people committing suicide, not just youngsters. For instance here, we do a lot to reduce the number of people killed in car crashes, and trying to get people not to smoke and what not. But nobody looks at the number of people who committed suicide and wonders why they did it. How do we make it better so that people don't? In part, as you know I'm going to say, by not stigmatizing depression. I'm not saying that every people who commits suicide is someone who should be treated for depression and isn't, but it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case for most of them. And then you look at why people were depressed and you try to fix that at a society level if relevant.

[eldanna.livejournal.com]

What would Canada do without him?

[camm-shenylle.livejournal.com]

I like this rant and I love Rick Mercer.

While I really appreciate the "It Gets Better" campaign, I think Rick has a very good point here. In this case, promising "it gets better" wasn't enough, so it seems so obvious to me that we have to make it better and I'm glad he spoke out.

I also have this theory that Canadians are lazy because we view cyber-bullying and gay bashing as a more American thing, and we view ourselves as a more liberal and open-minded society where things like that don't happen. And this whole situation is proof that, obviously, they do, and we need to rectify it.

tl;dr - Yay, Rick Mercer!

[emmy-roo.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's amazing. Good for him! This makes me want to go out and thank the various people who saved my life when I tried to kill myself in high school. Hint: they weren't the adults in my life, who said I just wanted attention.