When I was in graduate school I fell in love with this picture, The Golden Rule , by Norman Rockwell. This painting hangs in the United Nations building in New York. Rockwell started to paint this in 1950-1951 and finished it in 1961. When describing the painting, the Norman Rockwell Museum said this about Rockwell, “At the height of the Cold War and two years into the Korean War, his concept was to picture the United Nations as the world’s hope for the future—he included sixty-five people representing the world’s nations, ‘waiting for the delegates to straighten out the world, so that they might live in peace and without fear.’” Since that time the world continues to experience war and a general discord among the inhabitants. I have this picture in my office as a reminder that we all deserve to live in peace and without fear.
This post is not a political debate, a religious commentary or a call to action about social change; this is about being kinder to one another. We live in an era of increased social media and instant information. This has led to people stating opinions quickly and often without full information. Think about a news article or a post you read from someone and ask yourself “was it accurate?” Did that post lift and inspire you or did it scare and create panic within you? Those emotions cause us to act out, positively and negatively. We hold each other to impossibly high expectations and lash out at differences.
If I may share a personal insight. I read about some bullying that occurred to an individual. The bullying included phrases such as “you should just kill yourself” and “you make the world evil.” My heart hurts. How can we as people tell others such cruel things? How can we encourage suicide and harm? How can we forget The Golden Rule ? Let me ask, are these saying justified based on someone’s religion, non-religion, political beliefs or affiliates, race, gender, sexual orientation or age? Would you want to be told such hurtful things? The answer is NO! We are not each other’s judge and jury. We don’t get to decide who is better or worse than anyone else. We especially don’t get to encourage such hate.
Imagine if those statements had been said to someone suffering from a mental illness. The consequences of these words could potentially lead to devastating results. We are all in different places in our lives and we all have different opinions. We should be able to discuss those differences with respect and a desire to build each other up rather than tear each other down. Maya Angelou stated, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
I challenge you to take today and think about how your actions impact those around you. Choose how you will react and act to others. Let us treat each other with kindness and respect no matter if we agree or disagree with them. Lets stop the bullying.
Julie Lamb, LCSW
See also stopbullying.gov