bullying

In a town where graffiti targets Jews and people of color, how can the community respond? Reading, Mass., a town of some 25,000 persons that was incorporated in 1644, is today demonstrating needed leadership.

The Oracle is looking for examples of what people have been doing to combat bullying and to build healthy community life. Here is one example of creating a code of conduct. What do you think?

I am a "Big City Tenant." Living in Big City public and subsidized housing, I have seen and experienced that bullying is a huge and far reaching problem for elderly persons and people with disability in Big City. Legislation would help combat this cruelty.

This is a guide for tenants, managers, landlords, and community leaders who are concerned about conditions in a multifamily housing community that has become toxic.

Lucy, the manager of Erehwon Village, a multifamily public housing facility for elderly and disabled, has received complaints about the couple, Jack and Jill, from Thomasina, Dick, and Hariette, the "Guardians," The "Guardians" are self-appointed overseers of life in the village and no one dares stand up to them. What should Lucy, the manager, do? The Oracle is silent on this problem, but the Oracle has received several responses.

"Every age has its own Fascism." Madeleine Albright, a refugee from Nazi Germany and Communist Czechoslovakia, opens her book, Fascism: A Warning, with this quote from Primo Levi, himself a survivor of the Holocaust. What is the difference between fascism in a country, and mobbing and bullying in housing?

When we enable our leaders to dehumanize any person or group, we lose our humanity. John Donne wrote, "...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." When our leaders dehumanize a class of people, we allow waves of hatred, like the incoming tide on the beach, to wash away the sandy ramparts that protect our fragile humanity.

Whereas: why we need a law to stop bullying

I recently had the great pleasure of participating in The Senior Civic Academy, sponsored by the City of Boston's Elderly Commission. It was a pilot project over the course of five Fridays, focusing on advocacy by and for seniors, with presentations by panels of experts from a wide range of programs.—A report from Carol Leary

The Stop Bullying Coalition recently had the honor to meet with our elected representatives, Senator Joan Lovely (2nd Essex) and Representative Thomas Walsh (Peabody), to advocate for consideration of our proposed legislation designed to address two critical needs of tenants who are elderly or living with disability, and reside in public or subsidized housing, and are victims of bullying.