a TeMPLe of WoRDS

You don't truly know another person, not deep down into their soul. Everyone has secrets. They have things that have happened to them over their lifetime that have made them what they are today. Not just backgrounds, stories, beliefs, families, but hurts, pains, devastations, losses, happiness, loves, and so much more.

To create an opinion of someone, you must take the time to get to know them, and without that time invested, you can never call the person a friend. Not really.

You also can't - and have no right - to judge them. Especially when they have a different opinion than you have. You can tell your story, but if you're not willing to listen to the person's story coming from the opposite side, then how dare you choose to attack them, then feign innocent when they call you out on your behavior?

Your position, your history, your story, your feelings DO NOT lessen or negate their position, their history, their story, their feelings, and for you to act as if nothing that has happened to them matters really shows the kind of person that you are. AND when you get your army to join in on the attack, and those people are willing to attack someone based on your position, your history, your story, and your feelings, and are willing to dismiss the other person's merely on your say so, that says a LOT about the people that you are friends with and even more about the kind of person that you are.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, people don't care to know why people feel certain ways, why people speak out for or against different things, to really know the story behind the story, whether it's a public figure, the person who lives next door, or the person on the other side of a computer screen.

People criticize, shame, and bully when they don't like what someone has to say. They seem to thrive on the anger they hold tight like a protective blanket, and they don't care who they hurt when they choose to lash out.

Unfortunately, with BookLikes being such a small community, when you deal with the bad behavior of someone on social media, you're stuck with them here. And BookLikes, no matter how many emails you send them, doesn't care about making and keeping this place a safe place. 

I tried to be a good BookLikes-er, but I just can't. I can't continue to deal with people who have so much anger (and maybe pain) inside, that are willing to lash out at others in the most hateful ways. Even more so when they "diagnose" those people they're attacking with mental health issues and then tell others their diagnosis as if it's fact.

I avoid this place like the plague because I no longer feel safe here, I no longer feel happy here. I just feel stressed, overwhelmed, and hurt.

But then again, this is all apparently a delusion of mine... and being bullied online is not a *real* thing at all because all the person who feels bullied has to do is just leave social media altogether and it will just end.

But then isn't social media available for all of us, not just the people that you believe should be allowed to participate?

I will miss some of you... and so many that I hope will just one day be forgotten.