Pink Shirt Day

In a few hours it’s Pink Shirt Day, the day where all those who participate commit themselves to standing strong and eliminating bullying.

I really like the concept, but the reality is something quite other.

Wherever I see evidence of bullying or hear of it I confront it. It’s not easy, but there it is. The reverse isn’t true, however. When it happened to me recently no-one stood up to the perpetrators and I was left to deal with it myself. I fought it as long as I could but in the end, I had no option but to walk away from something I love.

Ultimately, it was a profound failure of leadership.

The irony right now is, two of the people who could have made a difference for me and CHOSE not to, who were complicit in the bullying, are tonight extolling the virtues of Pink Shirt Day and saying how they would encourage everyone to stand strong, ignorant, I imagine/hope, of their own failure to support me in just such a situation.

Do I care?

Yes, I do.

One of the bully’s behaviour was the worst I’ve ever seen, people reeled from it, myself included, damaged, yet there were no consequences. Not one. The bully stayed, while those same people were happy for me to walk. I have absolutely no time for hypocrites, and those without the courage of their convictions, the paper tigers, are the worst. So, unless you’re prepared to put your money where your mouth is, don’t wear a pink shirt on the 18th. At least do that much. And if you take on the mantle of leadership, you need to realize that it’s not all beer and skittles. There’s hard stuff to do as well, and if you want the title you’d better be prepared to wade through the muck and support your team when they need it or they’ll all disappear – the good ones anyway – just like I did.

Tomorrow I’ll be in black because that is my humour.

Fuck the bullies and their gutless enablers. All of them. Those who are complicit are the worst, worse even than the bullies themselves. Much, much worse. And I’m picking they mostly know who they are.