Frankly, I had
to call on all of my physical strength to help me sit through that last one,
but I am thankful for people like Linda Tapia, who stood firm for the young man
that was bagging the groceries and challenged the abuser to back down; she is
now counted in my list of favorite heroes. Mr. Quinones then interviewed
Madeline Will of the National Down Syndrome Society, after viewing the skit,
she commented, "It's important to say, again and again, this is wrong,
this is not fair, and this is not how we treat other people."
Have you ever
been in a position or witness something that made you stop and run that
statement through your head? Then afterwards what did you do? These
scenarios were not farfetched; if truth be told, I am certain that all of us
can place ourselves as one of the characters portray in the last story line as
either, the victim, the bully, the bystander, or hero/heroine.
By
definition;
- A victim is an unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance
- Bully is an abuser who comprises repeated acts over time that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power abusing those who are less powerful. The power imbalance may be social power and/or physical power.
- The bystander is a nonparticipant spectator.
- Heroes are peopling whom posse’s exceptional courage, strength or heroic qualities that help them to stand out.
As I looked
through these definitions I learned that falling into some of these
categories might be avoidable, but, I also realized that at times there will be
instances where being a victim is unavoidable, because of being different or
having an inability as in the case of our store clerk.
Being a
realist, I also know that real heroes do not have the powers to see around
walls or go through them; however, I also know that in different form they are
amongst us and in most cases, they are us.
After scanning
the internet, I found a lot of useful information on how to deal with bullies
and I concluded that bullying revolves around, choices, ignorance, and where a
person is strategically or physically within a given situation.
The first two,
choice and ignorance, are easy to understand, but allow me explain to you what
I mean by, “Where a person is strategically or physically within a situation”
with an analogy that I use from time to time of the cross walk; you might
realize that you too might have been a bully at one time.
Here goes, at
this crosswalk, there are four things, a stop sign, a vehicle and two people;
one of these people is the driver of the vehicle and the other a pedestrian.
I would like
you to first put yourself in the shoes of the pedestrian. The law says that at
a stop sign the pedestrian has the right of way, you knowing this, start to
walk cross to the other side. As you look you see an impatient driver and you
think to yourself, I am in the right of way, so I am taking my time to cross.
Now if you were the driver, your thoughts would probably be different. You
probably thinking, I hope this clown picks up the pace, I would like to get on
my way, or something like that. And this ladies and gentlemen is what I mean by
“where a person is strategically or physically within a situation”.
I know that you
have heard this next statement before, he or she is acting that way only
because of (blank) and or lack (blank). My analogy asks only that we put
ourselves in others shoes before acting out and it proves that we can do it; we
all have driven or have been a pedestrian at one time or another.
So be a hero
when you can, help victims when possible, if you decide to be a bully, think of
where you could be in the future and as for the bystanders, if you are silent
you condone it.
Courtesy of
Rey Velez
Human Resources Business Partner at Square 1 Art
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