So, as I've said in past articles, I work at a camp. That means that I work with kids. The thing about kids is that they are mean. They seem to have no concept that words hurt, except for when the words are directed at them. I mean, I think it's really sad that we have, teens that feel like they don't belong because others profile them as different based on their skin color, teenage girls (and some boys) who starve themselves because people call them fat or kids that kill themselves because they believe lies that say, "you're not good enough, you're not worth it." This may sometimes be excused as normal kid behavior, but if you are told something about yourself long enough, by enough people, you begin to believe it.
I want to know though, can we blame them? From an early age, we tell them lies like, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." When they look at the T.V. what they see are grown ups talking crap about each other and certain groups of people, calling women "fat pigs" and all sorts of negative things.
The words we use have impact. They carry weight. There's a reason why the bible warns us about taming our tongues in the book of James. They are dangerous things, but they can be devastating things if used incorrectly by the right people. If some crazy citizen said that if the leader of Iran would not comply with the wishes of the United States, then maybe we should "help introduce him to his 72 virgins," you would of course look at him and think that he's just ignorant and evil. When you take this same statement and apply it to a presidential hopeful, let's take Ted Cruz for example, it becomes a far more serious issue, because if Ted were in fact became the President, it could be considered an act of war. The same goes for a normal citizen saying that we should move and displace millions of drug dealing, criminal, rapist Mexicans, but when it's said by a man with influence like Donald Trump, it could have devastating results for people of that ethnic group.
The words that people use against us are words that we carry around with us where ever we go. They influence our lives, even if we think they don't. The words that we use could very well shape what an individual thinks of himself or the world around him. It could also shape what a society thinks about itself and the world around it. I'm not advocating for being silent, but only to stop and consider whether we want our words to tear people down or to build them up. So next time you consider lying to a child that words don't hurt, don't.
