Don't Be Who The Bullies Want You to Be

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

The bullies are everywhere right now.

They roll into our neighborhoods in rented vans, shrouded in gaiters and dollar store badges, seeking to terrorize good people.

They lurk behind touch screens, spewing incendiary filth from behind the comfort of anonymity.

They ride in upon massive podcast platforms, perpetuating nightmare visions designed to divide.

They sit in the highest seats of power in our nation, continually manufacturing cruelty and chaos.

They dot our streets and cul-de-sacs, emboldened to display signs and flags proudly announcing their allegiances to those bullies.

And because of their proximity and volume, the bullies may appear impossible to overcome, but that is a mirage; a necessary farce that prevents you from remembering the truth: the bullies can’t beat you unless you become who they want you to be.

They want you to be frightened,
hoping that if they inundate you with atrocities and bomb you with bad news and expose you to unrelenting calamity, that you will be paralyzed with fear; rendered too terrified to respond. And since they want you to be frightened, you must be steeled and heartened, refusing to be internally terrorized a single second more

They want you to be hopeless,
to become so overwhelmed by the soul-crushing present that you believe the day is already lost, that your presence and your efforts are futile, that the future is not worth fighting for. Instead, kindle the fragile embers of hope still residing in you and refuse to believe our best days are resigned to history.