The Human Element

My generation makes me ashamed.
The cruelty that my so-called peers are capable of truly brings me to my knees in anguish. Such inhuman horrors are inflicted on the helpless every day. And very little is done to stop it.
The subject has been exhausted, or so the media thinks. Very little news time is given to yet another case of bullying or one more sad suicide. Perhaps that is because it happens so often that it is no longer news. Just another human life lost to the ravages of time. This, too, shames me. For we have lost our empathy, and apathy is spreading like a cancer.
To all of you out there who think it’s a joke, that it’s all in good fun, that no one could possibly take it seriously, to you I say this: you should be horrified with yourselves.
Pushing some boy into the lockers because he’s smaller than you, because he reads books, because he’s smarter than you, because he’s gay - you should be ashamed. How dare you take someone else’s life into your own hands and reduce it to humiliation? Where is your compassion?
Your own inadequacies and insecurities do not give you the right nor the justification to drag a girl down because she is different. Because she doesn’t wear make-up or like boys. Because she’s not like you and the girls in your clique.
Your belief in God does not give you the power to play Him. You are not judge and jury to others merely because they do not believe in your God or practice your faith. You have no right to persecute someone because the Bible says they are wrong, or because the Qu’ran states they are infidels.
Every day, young men and women are driven to the ultimate edge of humanity because of the antics of everyday people who tease and torment with no thought to the consequences.
You disgust me. And you should be disgusted with yourselves. Because at the end of the day, we are all human beings. We owe it to each other to respect each and every person that crosses our path. We can’t possibly know the full extent of our actions, and so we must do our best to be kind and empathetic and human.
To those of you who stand up, for yourself and for others, I say only this:
Thank you.
-Lucifer