"Be Nice, Be Kind" much more than just a slogan

Have you ever contemplated suicide? Do you know someone who has committed suicide?

What is your experience with being bullied?

For too many young people bullying leads to a sense of hopelessness and to thoughts of suicide.

Here is a big thumbs up to the new "Be Nice, Be Kind" campaign in Clay County.

Jeanne Burris, The Brazil Times general manager, and I attended an organizational meeting for the group recently.

Those people are to be commended and supported for their efforts to show support to young people and to assure them there is hope, there can be a good future.

I suppose nearly everyone has experienced being bullied at one time or another. Many of us have learned to laugh at those experiences though I suspect they shaped our attitudes toward ourselves and others in a negative way.

I know my worse, prolonged experience with bullying occurred 50 years ago this year when I was 13.

To this day, the name calling, the verbal abuse crop up from time to time and I have to tell myself, "Isn't 50 years long enough to let some jerks have control of even a small part of your life?"

For too many, the bullying leads to a sense of hopelessness and to the idea, "Maybe killing myself is the only way to end this despair."

However, most kids do not think on that level and can only feel what they feel.

I hope the community will embrace the "Be Nice, Be Kind" campaign and may it spread far beyond the borders of Brazil and Clay County, Indiana.

See the "Be Nice Be Kind Campaign" page on Facebook for more information.