Bullying- Stop it

I promise, you don’t need to be Mormon to appreciate this video. In fact, every child, teenager, adult… everyone should watch it.

As an amateur filmmaker I found some of their choices unusual– some extremely slow awkward moments, very little music– and at 10 minutes and 24 seconds it’s nearly three times as long as most Mormon Messages. But the final result left us all in tears.

I was also surprised by the conversations in my kitchen after watching the video. Despite all anti-bullying assemblies, the lectures and posters in the hallways, they see bullying at school every day. They’ve felt the sting of cruelty themselves. And while they don’t take part in mocking others (and I believe my kids) they all felt like they could reach out to others a little bit more. I think kids (and adults) often feel so insecure themselves they don’t recognize their power to lift others. We are all powerful. We can all do great good.

Our conversation ended when I had to drive Xander to school, we were almost to the high school when we saw a boy we pass almost every day. He looks a little angry, he looks a little strange, he looks a little lonely.

“Let me out here,” Xander said, “I’ll walk the rest of the way with J___ today.”