Take the Pledge to Stop Bullying with the Gabriel B. Taye Foundation

*I own the rights to the photo above*

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Throughout the day, we pull out are phones and scroll through social media feeds and news articles for ridiculous amounts of time, completely unaware of what we’re feeding ourselves—you know, the usual routine for the majority of our society. Suddenly, we come across an exigent story: “An 8-year boy has committed suicide due to bullying.” Although this particular incident I’m referencing happened back in 2016 to a young black boy, named Gabriel Taye, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the piercing daggers of sorrow from the loss of his life never gets any less painful. Earlier this month, we learned that nearly four years later, the Cincinnati school district came to a settlement to pay $3 Million dollars to the victim’s family and claims to create an anti-bullying system to monitor and properly account for repeat offenders. While we ideally should be able to trust our school boards and officials, we honestly can’t afford to leave it in their hands—it’s up to us to take hold of this vicious cycle and start within.

Where the Problem Lies

I've found myself asking, "Why aren't we talking about our pain? Why aren't we talking about our anger?" Because we don’t do this enough, we’re creating generations of bullies and disregarded individuals prone to taking their own lives—human beings that have pent up rage, resentment, rejection, regret, and so on. As the saying goes, "Hurt people hurt people."

The Simple Equation for Positive Change

The more we acknowledge our trauma, the more we can start to process the effects of it on our well-being and how it develops unproductive and unhealthy habitual actions. Once we do this, we can distinguish the root causes of our negative emotions and identify key triggers. While this will certainly require an immense amount of dedication, vulnerability, and focus, it is worth the attempt to save our sons’ and daughters’ integrity, self-respect, foundation, and the fragility of their lives. We have to keep in the forefront of our minds that absolutely everything that we do, everything that we say, and even our thoughts, whether negative or positive, of ourselves and others will be projected onto our children. We are them, and they are us. Without conscientiously making the effort to defeat our old selves every second, minute, hour, and day, the reverberations of disappointments, so called “failures,” and anguish will lead to us falling victim to them time and time again.

The good news

Every day we’re awaken with fresh air in our lungs, we are served the ultimate life or death decision on a platter: to fight another day or not. As you wake up or go to sleep today, I ask that you pray for a blanket of peace and comfort over Gabriel’s family and to willingly choose to fight for life another day for yourself and for our children. To pledge to stop bullying, visit the Gabriel B. Taye Foundation, and comment below what steps you’re taking to speak life into yourself and those around you.