theme song: make it stop

I don't know that I've ever really had an "angry song" before, something with lyrics to keep me energized about a particular angry emotion. I have such a song now.  It motivated me to spend half a day collecting the information for this post.

The Southern Poverty Law Center explained in a report last year that gays remain the minority most targeted during hate crimes. "Gay people are more than twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime as Jews or blacks; more than four times as likely as Muslims; and 14 times as likely as Latinos." And the people that youngsters are supposed to rely on for protection are also likely to punish them. You can understand, maybe, why some people living in the "land of the free" may desire to add a few special caveats to their pledges and anthems.

"Make It Stop (September's Children)" by Rise Against

From a nation under God, I feel its love like a cattle prod.
I'm born free, but still they hate. I'm born me; no, I can't change.
It's always darkest just before the dawn.
So stay awake with me, let's prove them wrong.
Make it stop; let this end. Eighteen years pushed to the ledge.
It's come to this, a weightless step. On the way down singing...
Woah, woah.
The cold river washed him away, but how could we forget?
The gatherings hold candles but not their tongues.
And too much blood has flown from the wrists,
of the children shamed for those they chose to kiss.
Who will rise to stop the blood? We're calling for, insisting on,
a different beat, yeah, a brand new song.

Bullying in its various overbearing forms needs to end. It's so obvious, it's almost pathetic that anyone still has to explain why.

	2011: Jadon Higganbothan, 4 years old, is killed by religious leader in North Carolina. "Prosecutors said Moses killed Jadon because he thought the child was gay..." - WRAL		"You want to know who the biggest hypocrite in the world is? The biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty for murderers and not for homosexuals. Hypocrite. The same God who instituted the death penalty for murderers is the same God who instituted the death penalty for rapists and for homosexuals - sodomites, queers! That's what it was instituted for, okay? That's God, he hasn't changed. Oh, God doesn't feel that way in the New Testament ... God never "felt" anything about it, he commanded it and said they should be taken out and killed." - RightWingWatch
	2010 Aug 26: Asher Brown, 13 years old, shoots himself in the head. He was a student at Hamilton Middle School in Houston. "Asher Brown's worn-out tennis shoes still sit in the living room of his Cypress-area home while his student progress report — filled with straight A's — rests on the coffee table. The eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students..." - HoustonChronicle		"This is not bullying. It is peer pressure and is healthy. There are many bad behaviors such as smoking, under age drinking and drug abuse that are behaviors that cannot be condoned. Homosexuality falls into this category. Homosexuality is simply bad behavior that youth see as such and rightly pressure their peers to stop it." says Rich Swier of Tea Party Nation - LgbtqNation
	2010 July 9: Justin Aaberg, 15 years old, hangs himself in his bedroom. He was a student at Anoka High School near Minneapolis. "In testimony she gave to the Anoka-Hennepin School Board on Monday, Aaberg said her son was bullied because of his sexual orientation. She blamed the district for not intervening to stop the bullying, accusing district administrators of tying teachers’ hands with a policy that kept teachers from being able to “reach out and help these hurting students.”" - TheColu.MN		“It’s part of Satan I think to say that this is “gay.” It’s anything but gay.” “This is a very serious matter, because it is our children who are the prize for this community, they are specifically targeting our children." “Normalization (of gayness) through desensitization. Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of “The Lion King” for instance, and a teacher might say, “Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?” The message is: I’m better at what I do, because I’m gay.” - The BachmannRecord
	2010 Sep 19: Seth Walsh, 13 years old, hangs himself from a tree in his backyard. He was a student at Jacobson Middle School near Los Angeles. "Seth Walsh was an ordinary everyday kid who just wanted to live his life except there were cruel kids around him who won't let him. Why you ask? Walsh was a young gay kid and there were kids that would not stop tormenting him while school officials ignored the problem despite being aware of the bullying." - SFGate		"In a Thursday interview, Philips cheerfully advocated death as a punishment for males who “confess” to homosexual behaviour, or are seen performing homosexual acts by four reliable witnesses, in countries governed by Islamic law. Lesbians should only get lashes, he said." - TheStar

There are indeed monsters in this world. I learned about some of them while I was still a student at Texas A&M. It's sad that these young people get infected by hatred after years of learning it from the words of their elders and peers. They claim we're the ones who recruit.

You understand the irony, of course, when the evil people doing the harm actually blame the victims for their fate. Who is targeting whom?