I once heard that 1 out of 5 children admit to being a bully. If this is true, than 4 out if 5 kids are either lying or are sadly misinformed. Bullies are more than twenty percent of America's youth. You want me to point fingers at the problem behind our nation's bullying problem? Look in a mirror. Look at your best friend. Your spouse. Your parents. I am pretty sure that they are not perfect. At some point in their lives, they have looked the other way while someone is pummeled into a pulp, either physically or emotionally.

Bullies come at us from all directions. Embedded somewhere in every soul, a bully lurks. Its one goal is to recruit you to its malevolent army. With a magnifying glass in hand, it pounces at the first sign of weakness. As soon as one is found, the magnifying glass makes it out to be one thousand times bigger. Rays of sub shines through, and both weakness and victim are reduced to a smoking pile of ash on the sidewalk. The more we are bullied, the more we try to bully others, all in keeping with an ad infinitum cycle.

A teacher once told me that lack of awareness isn't the root of the problem. People are aware of bullies. They have seen that stereotyped playground bully, demanding some defenseless kid's lunch money. They have seen the news reports about children, barely in their double digits, being driven to suicide. Bullies are bad. Nobody is going to debate that. The real issue is that most people don't want to shelve their pride and admit that they themselves have bullied. Have you ever seen somebody being put down, beat up, or gossiped about? No? Then you're just as bad as the original offender. If even one more person can realize this, and vow to defend the victims, then imagine how many people could be saved. I know that I will try my very best to defend the next bully victim that I see. Will you?