While gay and lesbian activists were busy politicizing bullying and telling America that stopping some bullying is more crucial than stopping the other 85 percent (or whatever) of bullying, this was playing itself out in Trenton, Mich.
Watch the video. Contemplate the sick, sick spectacle of the Neighbors From the Bowels of Hell ridiculing and harassing a dying 7-year-old girl, all because of a neighborhood feud. Consider going so far as to fill your yard with tombstones.
Picture hauling a fake coffin past the dying girl's house. In a pickup painted as a ghoulish hearse.
Imagine posting a picture of the dying child's dead mother in the arms of the Grim Reaper on your Facebook page. Which also features a picture of little Kathleen Edward's head replacing the skull in a skull and crossbones.
People all across the Detroit area, and all around the world, are outraged. They've been holding candlelight rallies at the girl's house.
And the tormentors, Scott and Jennifer Petkov, now are national pariahs.
FOR SOME REASON, the Petkovs now say they're sorry. Very, very sorry.
AS FAR as I know, the swift end to those bullies' reign of terror was not the work of the National Coalition to Stop the Torment of Dying Children. It was the work of "You don't do that to children. Period. Much less dying ones."
It was the work of "How dare you treat people that way?"
It was the work of "You're a couple of cruel scumbags, and now we're going to kick your miserable asses."
IT WAS the work of common human decency. Remember that?
If we want to stop bullying -- if we want to prevent tormented kids from killing themselves and all manner of societal awfulness -- maybe what we need is just a single campaign . . . a single advocacy group. Call it the Campaign for Common Decency.
Because, face it, common decency needs all the help it can get these days.
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