Coulter a bully

Come, take an imaginary, but very real, walk with me. Imagine you are a 13 or 14-year-old boy. You are a little overweight, you get into science more than you enjoy sports, you even sing in the school choir. Your reward for doing your thing is that the sports boys and the popular folks call you faggot, trip you in the hallway, accidentally on purpose slam you against a locker. You know the little things of bullies, which add up to a life of torment and torture.
You can imagine how such treatment can lead you to suicidal ideas. You can understand how this life of torment can result in total self-destruction. You don't know if you are gay, and frankly you are 13 or 14-years-old. Do you really have to have such a label? Why should you have to even put up with this torture?
Now for a reality check. Those same bullies that tortured our imaginary, but very real hero, showed their fangs this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Committee gathering when they applauded Ann Coulter's side swiping attack of Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards by alluding to him as a "faggot."
And while I applaud his condemnation of the attack, Edwards has failed as far as I am concerned.
Edwards needs to get off his ass and face this head-on. Where is his call for hate crime legislation? Anti-bullying legislation?
He called Coulter's attack "childish." And that is where the problem lies. We keep seeing bullying as childish, as therefore somehow harmless.
But I think our 13 or 14-year-old hero would disagree completely with the harmlessness. Sadly most victims of anti-gay bullying are ashamed of the victimization, and fear coming forward. They internalize this and one of two things ends up happening; either they self mutilate and develop horrifying self-image issues which ultimately lead to potential suicides, or they focus that hatred out. And what we get are Columbine-like attacks.
Bullying, calling people faggots, lead to the deaths of straight and queer kids.
There is nothing harmless about it, not in any way, shape or form. Coulter is a brutal bully who should be silenced by shame. Instead she is a media superstar, given more and more megaphones.
But let us not forget our "friends," Hillary and Barak and the other Democratic Presidential candidates who have been mute on this issue. Where is there condemnation of Coulter? Where is their support for hate crime legislation or anti-bullying legislation?
Their silence is killing us.
So let's return for a moment to our 13 or 14-year-old hero. We're sorry Ann Coulter told America is was OK to bully others by using the term faggot. We are sorry the national media has treated your daily torture sessions as political fodder. And most of all we are sorry Hillary and Barak and the others let the attack go unanswered. Please forgive us for the failure of these people.
But do know that we are here, and we will not tolerate your torture and torment anymore. Please stand up and tell your bully, "no I will not let you terrorize me or any other person ever again." Stand up to them. And stand up to your real life Hillarys and Baraks, like teachers, administrators and other adults-including our politicians-and tell them you will not tolerate silence on this matter, nor will you tolerate another day of your education being interrupted by terrorists bent on hurting you.
Sadly, we need you to stand up, because our leaders lack the courage to do it for you. And in the end that is our failure.