Devourer Of Books: Autumn Reads

I want you to meet Autumn. No, I am not going to post her picture. I'm not even going to post her blog, Booklikes or personal. I'm only going to post some of what she said.

ABOUT ME.

You see, a link to her Booklikes account showed up in my stats. I clicked the link and it took me to her. She seems a little miffed at me because of my last post. ("Booklikes Supports Bullying: CEO Unprofessional")

In one post, she talks about how she was bullied through school. I'm sorry to hear that Autumn. I really am. She also talks about how two wrongs don't make a right. I agree. Totally! 

To a point.

Anyhow, here are some screenshots of what she said in the post that links to this blog. 

Here is my response to Autumn.

Dear Autumn,

When I was in school, I never had to deal with bullies from a "being bullied" perspective. They always stayed away from me because I was a scrapper. Not going around looking to get into fights kind of scrapper, but always found myself standing up for those who couldn't, or wouldn't stand up for themselves kind of scrapper. 

Whenever I saw someone else getting picked on or bullied, I felt bad for them. I always wondered why nobody would help them. I could always see the fear and the hurt in their eyes. That got to me. So I took it upon myself to always help defend others who got bullied. Had you and I gone to the same school, and I would have saw bullies picking on you, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have stepped in and stopped it. 

You say you never fight bullying by becoming a bully. I agree. Which is why I don't bully. But I do and I will and I have gotten in their faces. defending yourself from a bully or from being bullied isn't bullying. It's standing up for yourself. 

Yes, I had to fight a lot of bad people in my life. More than I care to have. I wish I never had to fight bullies or bad people, but sometimes, you just have to. Violence never solved anything, yet, it sends  a powerful message to those who use violence to try and hurt others or to obtain something, whatever that something might be. Sometimes, the only way to stop bullying, is to fight back. The only exception to this that I can think of off hand is probably Jesus. But here's the thing, I'm not Jesus. 

In your blog post, you call me a bully because I support STGRB. or because I stand up to the bullies. Fine. You have the right to your opinion, be it right or worng. But what STGRB is doing is not bullying the bullies. Nor am I. We are exposing the bullies, and showing to the world what they are doing to others in hopes that by giving them this exposure, they will stop. 

The only time I have ever been personally bullied is when I was a member of Goodreads. And Goodreads didn't do anything to stop it. What they did instead to me, and others before and after me, was ban them. yes, they banned the victims. And for that, I hope they are proud of themselves.

But the bullying didn't stop there for me. They also followed me to my blogs and stalked me and harassed me there as well. They also sent me emails posing as other people to continue the stalking and harassment. They also tried to sabotage interviews that I was setting up for my blog. They left me death threats. They accused me of things I wasn't guilty of. They purposely lied to try and hurt my image, reputation and book sales. And so much more. 

But if you didn't stand up to your bullies, then that was your decision. I wish somebody would have stood up for you. But for you to judge me for standing up to my bullies is a little judgmental on your part, don't you think? I'm not going to condemn you for not giving in to your fear and standing up to your bullies, so why do you choose to condemn me for standing up to mine? And for trying to help prevent someone else from falling victim to them? 

You mentioned that you were a proud "Dawidiot", and referring to my post as garbage. (Are you sure you were bullied in school?) And that's fine. Again, you have the right to your opinion. However, when I used the term "Dawidiot", I wasn't projecting that to anyone who isn't a bully, I was projecting it to the bullies. Only a bully would know that I was referring to them. Only a bully knows they are a bully in their heart. My question to you is: Why did you think I was referring to you? Do you see yourself as a bully in your heart? Well, that's between you and your conscience. 

Be that as it may, exposing bullies, and holding them accountable for their bully actions is not bullying itself. That would be like saying, a law enforcement officer is a criminal for holding criminals accountable for their crimes. Or saying that our prosecutors are criminals for filing charges against criminals. Or saying that our judges are criminals for convicting criminals for their crimes. 

Standing up to bullies, like I do, does not make me a bully. It makes me anti-bullying. Maybe I don;t go about it in the passive manner that you chose to deal with it, but you also have to understand, most of the bullies I am standing up against are grown adults who choose to act like children and go around bullying people. Worse than that, they do it like cowards while hiding on the internet. 

So go ahead and continue to judge me, Autumn, if that is the kind of person that being bullied has made of you. That is your choice now as you are an adult. Two wrongs certainly do not make a right, but maybe if I'm lucky, it will make the bullies stop, or hopefully, go away. If I'm lucky, by me being wrong in standing up against these cyber bullies, maybe nobody else down the road will become their next victim. That's my goal. What's your goal?

You said it yourself that you tried to stand your ground at one point and learned that it doesn't do any good. Well guess what? That's because you have had experience with bullies. This is my first time. Instead of judging me and assuming I was calling you a "Dawidiot", you could have reached out to me with your story and your experience and perhaps, done some good. Instead, you sought out to make a post in an attempt to try and humiliate me further like the rest of the bullies. You took it upon yourself to judge me prematurely. An opportunity for you to teach has turned into garbage. Nice going. 

Best of luck to you and your future. Let's hope we both learn something positive from this experience. And if another opportunity comes along for us to teach another, let's hope we both do a much better job at it. I might not be doing things the right way, but I am trying to do the right thing. Or at least, what is right to me in my heart, and what I believe in. I would think of all people, someone like you, Autumn, would see that.

I'm Carroll Bryant .... and this is The Looking Glass. 

Things We Learned Today:

* Autumn and Carroll both suck at teaching others what they have learned

 * Two wrongs don't make a right, but it might help to make things better

* Carroll is standing up to the bullies in hopes to prevent others from being bullied in the future

* Judge not lest thee be judged

* Exposing the bullies is not bullying

* Standing up to bullies is not bullying

* Opinions are like assholes, everybody is one

* Only Jesus was perfect, the rest of us are not

* Booklikes does support bullying