Columbine.

What annoys me is the fact this can still spark debate. It's hardly surpising though, many people just love to get on their high horse and say well yeah I was teased at high school but I never shot anyone. You were TEASED and perhaps those at Columbine were BULLIED to the extent their life was made hell. And I am talking about people who were teased, for those who have been bullied and who can still say well I'd never shoot anyone, well then you're lucky, yes lucky, because the damage you've suffered has been less fatal.

For some people bullying is a foreign concept despite being surrounded by it everyday. The fact it's "normal" that it just happens, that it makes you stronger, that you get bullied if you're considered fat or a "target" in anyway. Have you ever read the book Blubber by Jude Blume? She writes about a character who gets bullied for being fat but that character is not the largest in the class and eventually the bullies pick on someone else who's not fat and is considered average in every way..middle of the road, doesn't stand out..simply because they feel it's "her turn." So this is bullying. It's illogical, angry, viscious, cynical, bitter, resentful, full of intolerance. And it should be stopped for there is no excuse for it. Period.

I empathise with those people who had their buttons pushed to such an extent they shot people at the school. I'm not justifying their behaviour and I think they were crazy. But I know what it is like to be made crazy. I have to go to "my good place" in order to stop myself from killing me or someone else and this just in recovery from the day. That instinct we all have goes into high gear when someone has pushed us enough, is very present.

I have no nerve to ask you to think about people who are bullied everyday when you think about those people who lost their lives in those shootings. But I'll be thinking about both and I'll always have very resentful feelings for any bullied who lost their lives in the shootings, as far as I'm concerned they deserve it which is harsh. To you bullying is not like shooting someone with a gun but to me it is. What motivates someone to bully someone else? Is it just they thought it would be such a good laugh to make someone's life a living hell..because that to me is as inhumane as shooting a person, it's not immediately violent but it IS incredibly violent. There's a difference between the odd teasing remark and turning your nose up and acting superior and/or letting your own issues out by way of bullying someone else, what better than to pick on someone who's lower down the social ladder than you, eh.

I have zero tolerance for bullying and bullshit. I have zero tolerance for people who can cry buckets over an animal dying or a human dying but can't show one bit of empathy towards someone who's been bullied. And actually when I see someone who's fragile and temperamental, my heart goes out to them, I know your story, I know what it's like to be pushed and be made crazy, I know it can happen no matter how much you fight and do good things and be a good person.

RIP to every single person who has died because they have been bullied. And look up the statistics, if you shrug your shoulders at them, you've died inside.