In Your Face - Bullying Needs to Stop

    Amy and I are both sharing the same story today, and today only.
This story doesn't come from us, but someone just like us. It's real and it's deep. I only ask that you please think before you act. Think before you speak or type to the person you are speaking with. Your actions effect others in more ways than you could ever imagine. I want to thank Amanda for allowing us to share this on our blogs and with you. This has come directly from Amanda's blog that she shared and ran with her husband over at Hippies, Beauty, and Books, OH MY! Also included is a photo of the eleven year old that she talked about in her post.





"Bye, Bye Blogging


Hello Readers,

Jon and I created a post a few weeks ago about us taking a break from blogging, or at least slowing down extensively.

For the past several weeks we have been bombarded with rude, vile and offensive comments being left on our blog in the comments section of our posts and in our emails. We've done our best to ignore and delete as much as possible, but we can (or rather I can) only handle so much negativity. This is a problem that has grown steadily worse and since I started blogging over a year ago. To be honest, I'm not sure what brought all of this to us. We are generous, nice people who genuinely care about others. We aren't sure if this is stemming from THE SITE THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED, the fiasco with self-published author Carrol Bryant, or if people just decided to make us their next target.

Something occurred this week that was an eye-opener. A young girl we knew decided that she would rather die then go to school and be bullied. She was also tormented relentlessly on the internet. A few days ago, her mother found her passed out unresponsive. She tried to hang herself using a belt around her neck. They had hopes she would pull through when she was rushed to the hospital, but she died yesterday morning.

She was only 11 years old.

(You can find out more about her here)


When we do things on the internet, some of us forget that there are ACTUAL PEOPLE on the other end of the conversation, blog, or whatever. When you type in a hateful message and click the send button, it goes to a real person with real feelings. It doesn't matter who you are, it's going to hurt.

I was bullied relentlessly in school. I refuse to be bullied when I go online. The blogging world has become something toxic that I don't want to associate with anymore. Between all of the butthurt authors complaining about bad reviews, the jealousy that flies around, that wacky site that can't figure out what real bullying is from a hole in the ground, people being stalked at their homes, rabid fans attacking reviewers, and all of the other crazy things I have witnessed (especially over the past few months), I feel like I'm living in a fucking soap opera. The drama is too high and the pay out is too low. It sometimes feels like almost everyone is competing with each other to see who is the biggest bitch and I'm all out of Drama Queen awards.

Jon and I have decided we are shutting down our blog for good. This will be our last post. At this time, we feel as if we can serve our community better without all of the drama and without waking up each day with people belittling the things that we do. The stress is not worth it anymore.

We'd like to thank everyone who has loved our blog and all of our friends and followers we have come to know this past year.

To everyone else, be kind and aware of what you say to others.

-Amanda & Jon"

If you are in a situation that you are NOT comfortable in, do your best to remove yourself from it as Amanda did. Speak with someone and reach out. Even if you feel as if there is nobody there for you, trust me, THERE IS!

 

 

Cyberbullying HOTLINE

 

School Violence HOTLINE

 

or call

BRAVE # 212-709-3222

 

All of these are anonymous and strictly confidential.