Responding to Bullying

Robert Martin over at Abnormal Anabaptist posted this video on The Bullying Experiment. While I’m not convinced that shaming people who don’t intervene is an appropriate way to instigate change (shame rarely helps and you don’t know what fears may have kept someone from helping) I’m so impressed with some of the non-violent and courageous interventions you see here. Pacifism is not passive, and if we want to bring peace to situations unfolding around us, sometimes we’re going to have to step in.

Robert shared his powerful reaction to seeing this video as a past victim of bullying:

As someone who, in grade school, found himself withdrawing into the background because, the alternative, was to be mocked, hit, and deliberately embarrassed in public… I cried as I watched this every time someone intervened because, in my mind, I asked “Why did no one do that for me?”