Day One Hundred and Thirty-nine - Bully, "What is wrong with people? Seriously? WHAT?"

Watching this film makes me angry... a deep, visceral anger where I have to fight the urge to lash out, both at the real world and my own demons that are pulled up, kicking and screaming, from the haze of memory.

Old scars grow warm and smart watching this documentary.

Giving voice to several teens and adolescents who suffer day by day as outcasts, bullied incessantly and on the ragged edge of hope, the viewer is shown both their good times (which are few) and just a peek at the troubles unleashed upon them. Cameras follow kids still in school, those in juvenile detention for lashing our at their tormentors, and to the town hall meetings and funerals that result when two despondent children took their own lives.

It hurts to watch.

It hurts because I see parents who have no idea what their kids are going through. It hurts because I see administrators who stand there and do nothing, even blaming the victims as being "just like" their tormentors. It hurts because I've been there... and, in watching this, in some ways I still am there.

It also hurts because the MPAA initially rated this feature R for strong language.

You know what? Fuck you, MPAA.

When I was in kindergarten, Catholic school kindergarten, I was the one teaching curse words to the other children. This is a documentary that captures kids in their natural setting, often without adult supervision. They curse. We cursed... whenever we could get away with it and, in my case, even when I couldn't.

It was one of the ways I survived. Maybe I was lesser for it, as I was eventually kicked out of said Catholic school, but it was real. It was true. And giving this doc an R-rating for language, effectively cutting it off from its intended audience... forcing the filmmakers to release it unrated, limiting the theaters that would show it... ultimately forcing a recut that pulls it down to your "acceptable" limits of language.

Man... I really hate the MPAA right now. More so than usual.

I feel for these kids, I really do.

And, every step of the way, I want to smack around the administrators who just let it happen. The victim-blamers, the self-important, the politicians... they all deserve a good tongue thrashing. I even want to yell at several of the parents who put the onus on their children to be better in the face of kids who see them as weak or outsiders and will never leave them alone unless something is done on their end.

Ugh!

Bully should be seen by every child. And parent. And teacher/administrator.

Boys will be boys, my ass.

These kids didn't deserve to be pushed as far as they were, leaving several of them to feel they had no way out save for taking their own lives. Their peers and betters need to be aware both of their plight, the consequences of bullying, and the fact that there are plenty of other kids out there facing the same (if not worse) kinds of treatment.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~