Now tell me who the loser is now?

So I gave in getting a twitter account. I probably still don't get the point of it but I did come across something this  morning. This news article here from my hometown.

Stuntman Stu is a local celebrity in Ottawa. He's a radio host, sports announcer/emcee at Ottawa Senators games, and has made his own wine. Now motivation speaker against bullying.

So if there is someone that's been calling you a loser and other names, or if you are that person calling others losers and doing the name calling take a moment to think about who is the real loser.

If this about fame and popularity, take a look at Stu's story in the article and where he is now. Who knows where those bullies are? Did they ever think he'd become famous?
Or take a look at someone who has committed suicide or ended up dead as the result of bullying. Chances are if you're involved the someone's death you will be recognized but not as a hero and, who knows, end up in jail. (I guess an example would the Tyler Clementi case)

Now bullying doesn't just occur in the real world. The cyber world is the new playground. In the cyber world you can hide yourself behind a fake identity and probably mask your IP address too. You have the positive outlook saying like "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me" but in fact they do if you know what these words means. Ugly is the opposite of beautiful/pretty. Loser is the opposite of winner.  With society's molasses-in-January acceptance of different gender orientations you have terms, whether they are derogatory or not, that enter people's vocabulary related to that. From there one can attack someone they  know from school or aide in attacking others that they don't know. Also what can seem like a harmless joke can be interpreted as insulting to another so take that into consideration.

Though I have not seen Stu's talks (since I no longer attend high school) the article mentions a great analogy with a piece of paper (he does this with his morning show co-host by the way). How it works is you take a clean piece of paper (by clean as in no folds or tears) and you do things like crumpling it, stomping on it, throwing it on the floor . . . pretty much abuse the hell out of this one piece of paper then try to smooth it out. Now imagine that piece of paper is a person. As much as you try to straighten out that piece of paper the creases will remain. Even if the person lives another day they will still carry the scars, physical or emotional, caused by bulling.

I do have personal stories of being bullied during my school days but they do drag on if I post them here. From those experiences I've learned (and I probably will pass on those lessons if I do decide to have kids in the future) I've learned that one needs to take action but not aggression. Take action by saying you are being bullied. If you have a friend who is in that position, act as their witness. Aggression, such as punching someone or in my case throwing a rock in a non-vital area, can and will turn the tables around. Instead of getting justice for your cause the bully will end up as the victim. If it takes place on cyberspace report the e-mail/image/group. There is a reason why keyboards have the "prt sc" or "print screen" button and sites have moderators.

As for who the winner or loser is in these situations? If you are still alive today when after being told "the world would be better without you", you've won. If you stood up to the bully (depending on the action you took), you've won. If you've been told that you'll never succeed but end up as a celebrity, you've won.

We are all equals regardless of social status, orientation, ability, skin colour or creed. We are all human beings. If only those tiny differences between us didn't seem so big . . .