I thought I had just one topic about which to blog this week, but suddenly I was overwhelmed by possible topics, and none of them were pleasant.
I was ready to play devil’s advocate for Steve Harvey, the king of TV show hosting whose recent attempts to gain some privacy by sending out a memo about when and how to approach him became tabloid fodder. Hey, being a celebrity does not mean you sacrifice the locks to the bathroom stall doors; the man does need some space. I think if the folks read between the lines, he really meant that people should knock first; who really needs to make an appointment to ask in-the-moment questions when a show is taping and you’re on the clock? He had obviously had enough of asking politely because people just didn’t listen.
I was ready to grieve with a parent of an eight-year-old boy who committed suicide following a school bathroom incident in which he lay unconscious on the floor for a while and was poked and kicked and avoided by fellow students.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/12/video-shows-brutal-bullying-at-school-days-before-8-year-olds-suicide/
Then along came a ten-year-old who provided a note with a list of bullies who had driven him past his endurance, and he also hanged himself. I had still been working on notes from the first one, which isn’t easy because I, too, was bullied (and repressed by the faculty), so I had to step back as a writer and work hard to be informative without going off on a tear and become morbid or hateful. The topic will have to wait a bit longer.
http://6abc.com/news/mom-says-bullying-led-to-10-year-old-sons-death/1986682/
Then there was the follow-up story about a parent whose son he named Adolf Hitler, who ran into a problem with a bakery that would not put the name on a birthday cake. It seems the dad has adapted the Hitler name for himself.
Then there was a story about a woman with overactive bladder who, while flying, was forced by the airline crew to find relief in a cup, then had to carry the cup in a walk of shame down the corridor to the restroom while the attendant said aloud that her seat would have to be cleaned by a hazmat crew.
While I’m sorting all of this out, Mother’s Day is tomorrow. I hope all mothers out there reflect on the good things tomorrow. Maybe Monday we won’t have as bad a week of news as this past one.
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