Frohe Weihnacht und ein Gutes Neues Jahr!

These three candles symbolize faith, hope and love. The year is coming to an end, and I’ll be taking flight for the holiday, but I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts. Each year is filled with good times and bad. Here are some events that happened around the world and in the U.S. in 2012.

- Protests intensify in Syria and women and children are slaughtered

- The worst case of Presidential Election Bullying I’ve witnessed in my life

- Riot at Soccer match in Egypt kills 73 people

- Over 300 killed at a prison in Honduras

- U.S. Soldier kills 16 Afghan Civilians

- Tornadoes hit South and Midwest (17 States), killing at least 27 and injuring hundreds

- 7 Die in California School Shooting

- Job recovery slow most months

- Earthquake hits Italy killing at least 5 and leaving 3,000 homeless

- United Nations declares Civil War in Syria

- Wildfires spread in New Mexico and Colorado

- 12 killed in Colorado Theater Shooting

- Over 100 people die in Russia from floods

- U.S. Military death toll reaches 2,000 in Afghanistan

- 6 people killed at Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin

- Manila submerged by floods killing at least 50 people

- 4 killed when gunmen storm U.S. Embassy in Libya

- 87 deaths from West Nile

- Truce in Syria for Muslim Holiday (How nice of them not to kill anyone during a religious holiday)

- Sandusky is sentenced up to 60 years in prison for 45 counts of sexually abusing boys.

- Meningitis spreads throughout the U.S.

- Hurricane Sandy hits east coast, killing 44, and storm changes and grows to 1,000 miles leaving 8 million without power.

- Obama wins re-election while congress and the Nation remains divided

- 26 killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School

I don’t know about you, but this list is very depressing to me. The way I see it, people all over the world have a lot of hate in their hearts. I’m not overly religious, but I have always had a strong faith and love for God. I look at this list of deaths caused by man and Mother Nature, and wonder if someone’s trying to tell us something. Maybe it’s time we start putting God (whatever God you believe in) back into our hearts, homes, courthouses, schools, and corporate buildings. We seem to have strayed, and I worry if we continue on this path, we might not be able to find our way back.

I’m looking forward to waving good-bye to 2012. I hope 2013 keeps you safe, happy and allows your dreams and prayers to come true. I’ll see you in the New Year. Frohe Weihnacht und ein Gutes Neues Jahr (Merry Christmas and a Good New Year)!

New beginnings and goals,

Bea

Political Bullying

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/17

I’ve tried to stay away from the political conversations because I believe politics is a personal matter. It’s a matter in which we each weigh the pros and cons of candidates and see where it fits into our current lifestyle and values. That is, unless you’re a party voter, which is one of the things that has destroyed our voting system…but that’s another story.

This post isn’t about debating or arguing politics or which candidate I favor. The reason I decided to post this is regarding bullying. I’ve had to weed through countless adult Tweets, Facebook comments, etc. about politics and people attacking others because they don’t agree with the other voter to the point that I’ve been avoiding social networks for several days now. In one instance, someone remarked, on an author’s political Facebook comment, that “Anyone who votes for Romney has mental disorders” and the author ‘liked’ the comment.

In case anyone wasn’t aware of it, belittling others’ voting choice is a form of bullying. Earlier this month, Tweets and Facebook shares went around about the recent death of Amanda Todd, who was cyber-bullied through social networking. Amanda Todd committed suicide because of bullying. Shouldn’t her death make us stop and think about our actions? The author I spoke of earlier shared her dislike of bullying, stating she experienced it herself in her younger years, yet agreed with someone’s insulting comment. For those of us who are against bullying, it’s time we take a look at our own actions and possibly make changes, if need be. How can we be outraged at the younger generations for bullying when we’re doing the same thing?

The media and political candidates started the political bullying. Media outlets choose which candidate they support and then slam the other candidate in a game of semantics. And then you have the presidential candidates talking bad about each other, accusing one another of lying, and then telling the American people what’s wrong with the other instead of telling us what they’ll do to help this country recover. It’s all bullying—plain and simple. Here’s a link that doesn’t show politicians, media or society at its best - http://news.yahoo.com/u-election-nears-efforts-intensify-misinform-pressure-voters-051420119.html.

If we want the younger generations to learn the horrors of bullying, how wrong it is to bully someone because they’re not like us or don’t think the same way, then we need to start at the top level. If we want to prevent another child from taking s/he life because of cyber-bullying, then we need to start changing our own society and individual ways in how we approach things by demanding politicians and the media to set an example. Stop creating a bullying circus on television and social networks. Children learn by example, and what the presidential candidates, the media, and people all across the social networking world are doing, is showing children how to perfect bullying.

Bullies and Politics,

Bea

He, She or Bully?

It’s funny how we as humans judge things before actually testing or trying out. *points at the rest of you shaking your head saying, “I don’t do that.”* I am referring to myself right now. When I first joined Twitter, it was entirely for blog exposure, and had no desire to learn about snippets of people’s lives as I stated in an earlier post about Twitter.

I read things I probably would never hear about. Today, I read a disturbing article about a man, Kevin Morrissey - Today Show, who committed suicide supposedly due to relentless bullying by his boss. It isn’t a definite the boss drove him to his death, but an investigation is underway. Boss bullying happens more than most want to admit, and with the weak economy, bosses are taking advantage of the situation.

I posted this since bullying seems to become widespread branching out into all ages and intellect. We hear about teenagers bullying others to the point of suicide, mass school shootings by those tortured by bullies, and now grown adults bullying employees. Have we lost all respect for humanity? Are we instilling abuse in younger generations?

I feel it’s a serious issue to understand so we can treat. What are your thoughts about bullying? Do you think it’s worsening over the years?