“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life,” said Robert Louis Stevenson. Unfortunately, his quote is all too literal for many teenagers and young people of the current generation. Last month, five teens who were continuously picked on and bullied for being gay took their own lives.These kids were just being who and what they wanted to be, but apparently that wasn’t acceptable to their peers. Bullying in high schools, as well as online, has become an epidemic; innocent lives are being lost. Fortunately for us, we don’t tend to see a lot of bullying here in Freedom, which is very good; however, just because we don’t see it does not mean it still doesn’t happen. Bullying nowadays has taken on a whole new direction. When we think of a bully an image pops into our minds of a giant senior named Spike beating up a tiny freshman for his lunch money. The fact is this is not the type of bullying that seems to be driving young teenagers to suicide, it is verbal abuse. Every one of those kids were laughed at and called names, and for what? For being gay? For being who they want to be? This is just truly unacceptable. We never want to believe that the things we say to someone might hurt them so badly that they turn to suicide. So next time you feel like making fun of a kid just because he chooses to be different, think about the consequences that might follow. Sometimes we say things, and we don’t even know they hurt somebody or make them uncomfortable. Let’s be honest here, we throw around words such as ‘gay’ and ‘homo’ like they have a dozen definitions, but they’re always negative. So is it really so hard to understand why a homosexual might think he or she won’t be accepted by their peers? Now we all know we cant change our vocabulary to please everybody, but would it be so hard just to stop using a handful of words, all of which are used out of context anyways? As we should all be well aware of by now, online social sites, such as Facebook, are extremely popular in our society. So it only makes sense that bullying also takes place here; in fact, it happens even more. The prospect of being able to bully somebody without even having to be in the same room as them gives the bully a huge advantage. They don’t actually have to see the hurt look in the poor victims eyes, and therefor don’t feel any kind of remorse. Online sites are for keeping up with friends, not putting down our peers . Acceptance is easy to give, but never easy to find. We find enjoyment in pulling people apart and brutally tormenting them about the most asinine reasons, but what pleasure can you really find in that? Does it bring a smile to your face when they’ve finally had enough and decide to pull the trigger? The simple answer is no, it does not. Bullying and verbal abuse brings nothing but pain and suffering, so why do we do it? We can’t answer that, but what we can answer is what kind of outcome bullying supplies. It brings only years of built-up anger, self-mutilation, trying to change ourselves when change isn’t needed, and in the worse case scenario, suicide. So what message are we trying to deliver with all this? We think it’s pretty obvious; this needs to stop. Now.