It Is Not Okay!

Yesterday, while tinkering about in the garage, I listened to Peter, Paul, and Mary sing, “Don’t Laugh At Me.”  I was struck by the last two lines:

“My country, ’tis of thee, oh, sweet land of liberty 

It is of thee, that I sing”

This one song says it all.  The name-calling and the bullying have always been around—but it seems to me it has been given new license in recent days.  Why must we get our pleasure from another’s pain?  It is not okay!

I’m a little boy with glasses, the one they call the geek

A little girl who never smiles

‘Cause I have got braces on my teeth

And I know how it feels to cry myself to sleep

I’m that kid on eery playground who’s always chosen last

A single teenage mother tryin’ to overcome my past

You don’t have to be my friend but is it too much to ask?

Don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names

Don’t get your pleasure from my pain’

In God’s eyes we’re all the same…don’t laugh at me

I’m the beggar on the corner you’v passed me on the street

And I wouldn’t be out here beggin’ if I had enough to eat

And don’t think I don’t notice that our eyes never meet

Don’t laugh at m, don’t call me names

Don’t get your pleasure from my pain

I’m fat, I’m thin

I’m short, I’m tall

I’m deaf, I’m blind

Hey, aren’t we all?

I’m black, I’m white

And I am brown

I’m Jewish, I’m Christian

And I’m a Muslim

I’m gay, I’m lesbian

I’m American Indian

I’m very, very young

I’m quite aged

I’m quite well fed

I'm very, very poor

Don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names

Don’t get your pleasure from my pain

In God’s eyes we’re all the same

Someday we’ll all have perfect wings, don’t laugh at me

My country, ’tis of thee, oh, sweet land of liberty

It is of thee, that I sing.