possibly the best anti-bullying story ever

How many of you have NOT been bullied in your life, raise your hand? I'm willing to wager that even bullies have been bullied and didn't like it much. That's no doubt why they're bullies... Do unto others and all that. But anyway, being bullied pretty much sucks. And it's totally unjust. Yet it happens a lot, and pretty much anywhere. Unfortunately, everywhere.

So when you learn of the cruel bullying episode of a 68-year-old woman bus monitor by a group of middle school kids in Greece, New York, you just throw up your hands in disgust. Where does it end? Do people have no boundaries or basic respect for human life? Is there any justice for the bullied? Does everyone just look the other way?

And then you learn the rest of the story of Karen Klein, and how Max Sidorov of Toronto, moved by Klein's plight, felt he "had to do something to support her in this time." Yes! Human outreach! Is the best!

[Sidorov's] first thought was to raise money through the site indiegogo.com, hopefully enough "to get her away from the environment and get her on vacation somewhere." So he set up the site, hoping to amass $5,000 over the next month.

By early Friday, that fund had more than $450,000.*

During the time I was writing this piece, alone, the number increased from $479,702 to $487,388. I love that human kindness is triumphing over base, mean-spirited, hurtful Group Mind behavior. And the triumph is being publicly broadcast. Now Karen has enough money to retire. And I'm guessing this very public incident may change the bullying, cowardly ways of that group of kids in the future. If only we could change the hearts of all bullies in this manner. Well, it's certainly pretty to think so.



*excerpt from KETK article, "Emotional, widespread reaction to harassment of 68-year-old bus monitor," Friday, June, 22, 2012, 8:46am