What would you do?

I cannot stop thinking about this show. For those of you who don't know what it is: its a show with hidden cameras... they put people (who have no idea) in situations where someone is getting harassed/bullied/etc (by paid actors) and see how these people would react. For example: the video I am sharing has someone harassing a woman and her daughter because the woman doesn't speak English. Some people do nothing, they hear the harassment, they see the harassment and they simply turn their head to it. Others stand up for the people, they give the bully their two cents, put the bully in his/her place. Another cool thing about the show is that there is a psychologist who watches the whole thing while its happening and basically talks about why she thinks the people in the situation reacted the way they did. She reads their body language, responds to how the people reacted, etc. I was so touched by the whole thing. Literally had tears in my eyes at some of the situations. There was a video of a boy with down syndrome working as a bagger at a grocery store and they had the actors make fun of him.. call him a retard, say they wish those kind of people didn't work with the public, etc.. the most amazing part of the peoples responses who did stand up for the kid was how eloquent some of them were. Like they just used really powerful words to get their points across which I thought was great. They weren't threatening (or not most of them anyways) and they were just proving their point and most of them just tried to make the bully get a reality check that that could have been their sibling, their child, etc.

I was TORTURED in middle school. It was legit the worst days of my life. I remember thinking I could not handle life if that's how it was going to be. It happened on the bus, in class, at lunch.. and it was always around people. No one stood up for me. No one said enough was enough. I was insecure with my frizzy big hair, round glasses, crooked teeth... I remember wishing someone would be my voice. I remember wishing someone would tell them to stop. Out of the handful of bullies there were, by the time I was in high school and prettier, thinner, with less acne (lol) they had let up and I was able to move on (mostly to another set of bullies which in high school is the mean girls).. but the one bully I had from middle school I never forgave. He was relentless. I literally never had a conversation with him after middle school. And then, a year after we graduated high school, he committed suicide. Wow. I have heard that bullies tend to have even lower self esteem than their victims and apparently that is true. He had his own battles inside of him that he was taking out on me. The things he said to me stuck with me for LIFE. I literally to this day remember everything. The names, where we would be, who it was that would stand there and laugh with him... most of his crew were never the ones to say anything, they were the ones who just stood there. The show brought me back to all of this and I had tears most of the time watching it.

My goal with Tori: to teach her to be the voice she can be for others. To teach her to understand that everyone is different. It doesn't matter if you are beautiful on the outside, you have to be beautiful on the inside. If you are not at peace with yourself, it is not up to you to bring others down with you. Not saying anything is as bad as being the bully. NEVER BE THE BULLY.

Words will stay with you for life, please parenting God... let me remember that as Tori's mom. Let me remember my words will stay with her, everything I say to her will effect her self esteem, she has to always know I am her number one fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sam3deneMgk