If we support human rights, we cannot ignore legalized brutality against any group of our global community.
For too long, we've allowed ourselves to equate targeted bullying with innocent teasing, or dismissed it as pranks and ignored the torment and long-term impact that an incident like this has on young people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the difference between innocent teasing and harmful bullying, urging society to acknowledge the serious impact of the latter.
Kerry Kennedy emphasizes the importance of recognizing the distinction between harmless teasing and targeted bullying. She points out that many people mistakenly trivialize bullying as mere pranks, failing to see the profound and lasting effects such harassment can have on young individuals. By calling out this societal oversight, Kennedy advocates for a greater awareness and a more proactive approach to addressing the emotional scars left by bullying.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a school assembly on bullying awareness, this quote can be used to illustrate the seriousness of recognizing harmful behavior.
More from Kerry Kennedy
All quotes βWe owe our children an environment in which they can flourish, and where law enforcement, the justice system, and society as offers them a fresh start, not a jail cell.
In my human-rights work, perhaps the most important thing is gaining the trust of the victims.
My father believed young people are among our nation's most valuable resources, and so we should ensure that every child - including children and youth returning from the justice system - have access to the opportunities we would want for our own children.
While the One Child Policy has been effective in drastically reducing Chinese birth rates, the measures adopted in its name have required exhaustive, violent, insidious and systemic violations of human rights.
Nelson Mandela represents an enduring example of the human spirit and he proved for eternity that the ideals of democracy and human rights can overcome even the direst of circumstances.
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Violence toward women isn't cultural; it's criminal.
Strength is one of those things you're supposed to have. You don't feel that you have it at the time you're going through it.
Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse.
Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.
It's easier to aim to please and say what others want to hear than to form an opinion and fight for it, even if it means taking a risk or losing your job.
So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death?