Selfish Advocacy

"There are lots of incidences of bullying that go on. I wonder why Ellen choose this one to focus on."
By chbaresich on The Case Against Public Ridicule at 10:38 AM


I received this comment on one of my posts. In it, I was referring to how Ellen DeGeneres was speaking out against bullying; specifically in regards to homosexuality. Just so you know that there is no controversy here, I’m not speaking against Ellen or slamming her. She’s right. We shouldn’t be cruel, post sex videos online or call them names. If you don’t know any derogatory names for homosexuals, you likely didn’t go to public school. The issue is why? If there are many forms of bullying, why would she speak out against merely this one form?

This past Monday night, my wife and I were staying at a motel as we celebrated our 14 year anniversary. Before lying down for the evening, I spent some time watching the evening news. There was a segment looking at a woman who was trying to raise awareness for violence against aboriginal women. I found that to be rather odd. So, is violence against other women acceptable?

The sad truth is that certain forms of violence and bullying are more tolerable in our culture than others. This might surprise you, but the woman who was speaking out on violence against aboriginal women was an aboriginal woman. Likewise, Ellen is known to be a homosexual herself.

We as human beings tend to advocate only for things that affect us personally, and this even includes our charity; myself included. I have a friend who has a certain disease. So when she is raising support, I try to support her. I have a family member who had breast cancer. So when I hear about breast cancer, I receive it differently than if it had never touched my family.

Notice how ‘I’ am involved in the whole process. I have a friend who suffered from……..I have a loved one who has……I am suffering from……

Michal J Fox is a well know advocate for Parkinson disease. Know why? He has the Parkinson disease. Wouldn’t it be both strange and uplifting for some celebrity to get Alzheimer’s, and spend their life raising money for cancer research?

Violence against anyone should be abhorred, be it male or female, Aboriginal or Caucasian. Bullying in any form deserves our attention.