My question is simple enough. Should it? I don't know.

Bulling is part of growing up. Most everyone I have ever known has at some point either been picked on or picked on another themselves. It is part of our society and more than that it is part of our nature, at least in my opinion. I know there are many out there that would disagree and say that this is more serious more. Children are committing suicide over it. It is the bullies to blame. We need to stop bullies and we will save children. First it is not just the bullies fault for any kid committing suicide. I am sure that the bullies intention was not an eventual premature death on their subject. The blame does lay with the bully, but with the parent and school as well. If a child is going to commit suicide there has to been some signs. Signs that both the parents and school system ignored or simply did not pay attention to. The bully probably noticed the signs and used it against the kid.Why didn't the parents notice?

Growing up I had a heavy accent, my name rhymed with many many things I wished it didn't and I had pretty bad acme. I survived. Just like most everyone else. Bullying is part of our socialization process. It forces us to recognize our faults in ourselves and to overcome them. When faced with a bully one has to stand up to the bully. It is the ultimate reason for them. When you do stand up to them you face a great fear and gain much needed self confidence. Plus after being beaten up a few times you go complaining to your dad and he teaches you Karate or boxing or I suppose nowadays MMA. Whatever is practiced in the household. The remake of Karate Kid would be way worse if little Will Smith Jr committed suicide in the first reel.

Bullying is also a primal action in juveniles. We are primates. In most every primate society the Alpha Male exhibits his strength and dominance over the weaken males. The same is true with schoolyard bullies. They are the Alpha Males at the time. It is up to the geeky kid to stand up and not necessarily become the new Alpha Male but to at least demonstrate that they are not the weakest in the herd.   

Another big component to the recent wimpy kid suicide caused by bullying is that the kid in question was ousted by his peers for being gay or went public on his own and then was subjected to severe teasing. Living in Portland where homosexuality is completely open and accepted it is sometimes difficult to me to understand how being gay or straight is even an issue to people. In a way, straight men should encourage other men to be gay. It decreases the amount of competition for attractive females. Yet I do understand that being gay is still an issue in parts of the country. 

After reading the articles and watching the Ellen video there appears to be three main parts to this "epidemic" as Ellen puts it. First, the kid in question is gay. Second, he was bullied because he was gay. Third, he committed suicide because he was bullied. Working backwards here, I have difficultly accepted this train of thought. In my mind, he did not commit suicide because the kid was bullied. He committed suicide because he was a little wuss boy that never would of cut in it society. A little harsh, but come on, if any kid offs themselves for being picked on as a teenager, that person will never be able to function properly or be able to handle the negativity that life will throw at them in their twenties or thirties or any other time in their life.

The second reason,  he was bullied because he was gay. Sweet. I was bullied because I use to wear Burger King Crowns to school. The point is that I was different. All of these kids were different. Bullies don't pick on kids who are like them. They pick on kids who are different. The fact that these kids were gay, was just the reason that made them different. Chances are if they were not gay they still would of been picked on. I also like to further say that just because they are gay doesn't mean they are more likely to commit suicide. Most of the gay men I know and have met are strong willed self confident individuals. Sure there are those that are always a Hallmark commercial away from a cry, but that is not most. When I say Gay, I mean Gay men not women. Lesbians don't truly exist anyway. Moving on.  :)

The first point being that the kids are gay. Either the bullies are themselves suppressing some deep seated desire or more than likely they just don't understand what it means to be gay. What they don't understand is the unknown and the unknown is also scary to people. Also, they are teenagers they don't know if they are gay or not. Yes some people are born gay and know it their whole life, but most do not. For most it takes a while to fully understand their sexuality and that is only if they have an open enough mind to allow themselves to. On the Kinsey scale, which is from 1 being completely straight to 6 being completely gay, most people are either a 2 or a 3.

In the end it's hard for me to see the fuss in a couple of kids who sever the mortal cord cause a few other assholes made fun of their lisps.

Besides America is the worlds bully. Anytime we have an issue with someone for being different than we are, and if you are not us then you are different, we go kick their ass. These colors don't run, they conquer your country. To not bully is to not be an American. If you in some way don't support bullying well then you are just a Canadian in American clothing.