2.27.2008

Bully for You, Christy

Today marks Pink Shirt Day in British Columbia, the culmination of a campaign to discourage bullying in the province's schools. This page calls bullsh*t, and challenges any pink shirted-sheeple who don't like it to try and knock the cynical chip on my shoulder.

It's disgusting that even my own Union Local would be sucked in by a feel-good exercise orchestrated by one Christy Clark, who, during her toxic tenure as Education Minister, did more damage to BC's public schools than that kid will do to your son or daughter at the bike racks after school. Maybe bullying wouldn't be such a problem if Clark and her BC Lieberals had put more resources, like counselling and better training for teachers, into the school system to deal with it, instead of trying to beat up the BC Teachers Federation at every turn and turning our public schools into test factories for the Fraser Institute where the top students are skimmed off into private schools. The real problem, as Lisa Moy adeptly explains, isn't bullying but the racism, sexism, class warfare and homophobia which is the ongoing result of the sociopathic dog-eat-dog, kid-eat-kid, winner-take-all society that Christy and the Campbell gang think makes Brutish Columbia The Best Place on Earth (tm).

Clark says "if there's one thing that I could raise my son to be, it would be caring, compassionate person." Does she mean the same privileged infant who had a nanny and custom nursery built for him at the BC Legislature at taxpayers' expense, while NDP MLA Jenny Kwan had to have Grandma look after her baby daughter in an annex office with no running water when the Leg was sitting? For those of you scoring at home, looking out for Number One (or Little One) does not equal caring or compassion. If Sam Sullivan did one thing right in his political career, it happened three years ago when he stopped that selfish, grandstanding, hypocritical b*tch Christy Clark from even getting close to becoming Mayor of Vancouver. Fortunately, all she's been left with is her bully pulpit at CKNW, which means that all any of us have to do to avoid this career political bully is switch stations or turn off the radio.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bullying has always been a problem, and if you think that the effects are not long lasting, you are a fucking moron.

I know this for a fact, because I was mentally, emotionally, and physically tortured by my so called peers, because I was a skiny nice guy with glasses.

I still carry the pain, and insecurities 15 fucking years later, two the point where I can not make lasting relationships outside of the military. No wife, no girlfriend, because I can not fucking trust them.

Since it apparently matters, yes, I am white, and yes I am a male.

Bullying is real, and the consequences are very fucking far reaching.

This post of yours on this subject is fucking disgusting.

Ya, freedom for all... Aparently, including the freedom to torture others.

Fuck you cunt.

Anonymous said...

Reason - that makes two of us.

I think you have some issues. I don't say that to be insulting, I say that because for how little we agree on anything. I feel for you.

I apologize for hitting a pretty serious nerve with you, but I'm not going to apologize for my remarks. B.C.'s public education system suffered tremendously under Clark's disasterous turn as education minister, and her attempts to garner popularity and whitewash her record by running out in front of the anti-bullying movement is, to use your words, f**king disgusting.

I also strongly agree with Lisa Moy's analysis. As someone further to the right, you probably don't because everything focuses on the individual as one moves further right, but I contend that no-holds barred free market societies provoke the racism, sexism, class warfare, and homophobia that leads to no-holds barred bullying.

If it makes you feel better to call people names, hey, it's not like I haven't done it to you. I just hope you can get to a good place because as much as I disagree with you, your comments have proven that you're smart and you have something to contribute.

I'm not trying to patronize you, I'm not trying to manipulate you, I just want to you know that I recognize you have some history that's not good. Believe it or not, I have friends who were in the military that didn't get out unscathed either, and I know what it's like to be the skinny nice guy with glasses.

To sum it up three words: I hear you.

Anonymous said...

The military is the one place I have found a home. The work I have done, the things I have done, to stop bullies, gives me some peace.

Bullies, are bullies. The ones I dealt with were all middle to middle-upper income. Jocks. Every possible advantage. All I ever wanted after my first couple of run ins, was to make it through each day without being noticed.

Terachers like the one you referenced, were no help to me at all. My only defense was to drop out of highschool, because no one would help. No one. "Boys will be boys." "They all have such promising futures." Bullshit. I was sacrificed so some dipshit jock, who now works a factory job and is an alcholic could have a promising high school foot ball "career". Bullshit.

A 15 year old is perfectly capable of knowing right from wrong, and removing the stigma that almost came about from being a bully is only going to protect the bullies, not the victims.

We are always bullied into not saying anything, and then the problem goes away... Until someone comits suicide or worse.

Victims are not always coloured, nor Jewish, nor Gay... I'm straight, white male. I am supposed to be the golden child... I never was. The root causes are, society is failing miserably, because we no longer hold the individual responsible for their individual actions.

Anonymous said...

'The military is the one place I have found a home. The work I have done, the things I have done, to stop bullies, gives me some peace.'

Thanks for clarifying that. I realize that the Armed Forces are by no means a monolith, and peoples' experience may vary.

FWIW, In my discussions with you, I've noticed my position on Afghanistan is either shifting, or I'm just more aware that I don't have all the answers.

RossK said...

Even the wording of the tagline on the self-congratulatory post-event advertisements is offensive.

To Whit:

"Bullying Stops Here..... A Christy Clark and CKNW initiative".

After all, I could have sworn that that the true initiative actually came from a couple of brave kids in Nova Scotia, not group of people sitting around a Corus Radio boiler room table.

.

Anonymous said...

It is bullshit that Christy Clark built a nursery and had a nanny at taxpayers expense. She simply put a playpen and some toys in an empty office across the hallway that used to be used for storage. She paid for her nanny out of her own pocket - unlike Jenny Kwan, she did not have a grandmother that she could rely on every day - she would have loved to!

Also - Christy was a vocal opponent of the Fraser Institute school ratings.

And funding per student went UP, not down during her tenure.

Her problem was that she took on the entrenched interests in the BCTF by offering people more choice in schools and by cleaning up the Teacher's College so that the teachers union wasn't the body that was essentially controlling the thing. This made the union very, very angry.

Anonymous said...

Gazetteer:

Christy gave credit to those kids in almost every segment on the subject and in every interview I ever heard on the radio or on TV.

The "pink campaign" was an initiative of Christy's, and CKNWs.

Maybe if you got off your ass and actually did something for society rather than spew hatred from your basement, you would understand that this was a good thing.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: Gazzetteer has a basement?

Can you get out of yours long enough to recognize that ANYONE who supports the BC LIEBERAL Party is a lying, selfish, self-aggrandizing anti-union bitch asshole troglydyte loser who hates this province so much they're going out of their way to sell it off to whatever criminals have two nickels to rub together.

Fuck you, fuck Christy Clark, fuck Gordon Campbell - go suck off the Vancouver Board of trade, punk.

I could be as cowardly anonymous as you, but I'll put an actual name in.

Anonymous said...

Chuck Neilson never sleeps...he waits. :)

ANONYMOUSE: Funding for Hamish Clark's nursery came out of the Speakers' Office. At the time Clark supported it because she felt that it would help Gordon Campbell attract more women into politics. Jenny Kwan was offered a similar arrangement, but she refused, as the Campbell Lieberals were slashing funding for child care.

To address your claim that student funding increased, you're on my blog, so my blog my rules, and I rule that charter schools don't count. Charter schools are little more than taxpayer-funded private schools.

Also, Christy Clark was never a vocal opponent of the Fraser Institute rankings. Do you seriously believe that Gordon Campbell would ever have allowed one of his minions to question the high priests of right-wing public policy?

Chuck Neilson's tears can cure cancer...too bad he never cries. :)

Anonymous said...

Please prove that the Speakers office gave extra funding for a nursery for Christy Clark. If you are referring to her normal office allotment, then that does not constitute any extra funding.

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