It鈥檚 great that we mark occasions such as Pink Shirt Day.
Not that long ago, it wasn鈥檛 a thing. It wasn鈥檛 until a male Grade 9 student in Nova Scotia was bullied for wearing a pink shirt in 2007 that we started to mark the occasion. Before too long, it grew to not only be a nationwide occasion, but an international concept, with schools and workplaces throughout the world marking Pink Shirt Day.
But we can鈥檛 be content with anti-bullying efforts being confined to Pink Shirt Day and similar days that happen during the year.
Often we鈥檒l have something one day or one week a year. We鈥檒l pay attention to it in the days or weeks leading up to the occasion, and we鈥檒l think about it in the days afterwards, but then we鈥檒l get busy with all of the other things we have happening in our lives, and before we know it, we鈥檒l return to our patterns from before Pink Shirt Day. The messages we heard and the lessons we learned will be forgotten, until the next similar day, or until next year.
We need to heed the messages of Pink Shirt Day, learn from them and apply them to our lives throughout the year.
It鈥檚 not that long ago that bullying was viewed as an unfortunate but almost accepted part of life. And we often viewed it as being confined to schools.
Kids would be picked on, and they would hear responses, such as 鈥渟uck it up鈥� or 鈥渋t will make you tougher.鈥� Sometimes, when they would report the incident, or if they would retaliate, they would be punished, or they would get the same treatment as their tormentor.聽
And we would expect that this is something that would end as kids get older.
To an extent, those days are, thankfully, over. Fewer people view bullying as normal. We no longer say that some people are bullied because they deserve it, or because they bring it on themselves. We no longer condone some who do it because they鈥檙e going along with the flow. And we encourage people to stop being bystanders on this issue.聽
These are all positive changes in the right direction.聽
We鈥檝e also seen a greater awareness that bullying is not just a school issue. It鈥檚 an issue that extends to the workplace, into the community. It happens in families. It happens among adults.
It鈥檚 more prevalent in some aspects of life than others, but for many, it鈥檚 still there.聽
We鈥檝e had a few Pink Shirt Day walks in Estevan, first through downtown Estevan when the walk was held in the spring, and then at Affinity Place when the Pink Shirt Day was shifted to the winter.聽
It was great when you would see hundreds of pink-clad people, most of them school students, walking down Fourth Street. And you would hope that the messages they heard from the speakers would lead to some genuine change. 聽
The idea of completely getting rid of bullying forever and ever is impossible. There will always be bullies, just like there will always be criminals.
But what you can do is take a hardline on bullying, so that those responsible know there will be consequences and that their actions won鈥檛 be tolerated.聽
But more importantly than anything else, it鈥檚 important to be there for the victims of bullying, to let them know they鈥檙e loved and people care for them. It鈥檚 critical to remind them that this isn鈥檛 their fault, and they don鈥檛 have to change for anyone.聽聽聽
And that鈥檚 a big part of the value of Pink Shirt Day. 聽
So yes, it鈥檚 great that there鈥檚 a Pink Shirt Day and other days that we say we won鈥檛 tolerate bullying, but it would be even better if we always had the same attitude that we have on Pink Shirt Day.
