"Cady, there are two kinds of evil people in this world. People who do evil stuff, and people who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it."
While Janis Ian may be a fictional character from the early 2000s classic, Mean Girls, I think she was on to something here. From then to now, this quote is a great one to live by.
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No, I'm not saying you should replace your frenemy's face cream with foot cream, steal her boyfriend, or turn her best friends against her.
What I am saying is that it's not always enough to just not be a bad person. Sometimes, it takes more than that to be a good person.
Whether it's stopping a gossip session, intervening in an argument, or just hearing a friend out; There's always an opportunity to go the extra mile to defend someone else.
This past week a deaf teenager made headlines after the contents of his backpack, including the battery to his cochlear implant, were thrown into a toilet. While he has received an entire country's worth of support, that doesn't change the scar that this incident will leave on his heart.
According to an article from CBS news: "After several interviews with students, school administrators said in a statement that they believe the students involved didn’t know each other, and that 'students targeted an unattended backpack versus an individual student.'"
I wasn't there, so I don't know how the situation was. However, maybe if one person had said "hey, you probably shouldn't do that," the entire incident could have been avoided.
I don't know at what point being mean became "funny." Maybe it's this generation, maybe it's always been that way. Despite this trend, I see a strong difference between cutting up with your friends and being an ass to a total stranger.
On a separate note,
"You have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores." -- Ms. Norbury
I've found that it's much more fun to be kind and build people up, than it is to tear them down.
Stand up for the people who aren't there to defend themselves. Stand up for those who are outnumbered. Stand up for people you don't even know. Don't expect anything in return. Sometimes, all it takes is one voice to overcome evil with good. At the end of the day, it's better to think "I might have helped by saying something" than "I should've said something."
Rant over. Thank you for reading!
