Karen the Bus Monitor

There is a ten minute video floating around of a bus monitor being bullied by these ruthless grade school kids. She's literally being called fat, a troll, almost every explicative word you can think of, and they even go as far as asking for her address so they can egg and pee on her house. When I first heard about this being a bullying case and hadn't seen how intense the taunting was, I really thought it was a little much for it to be called a "harassment" case. After watching the video, I am amazed at how Karen, the victim, maintained her composure while being trapped in a bus seat while one kid was video tapping this whole scene while several of his friends joined in tearing this lady emotionally apart. Not once in this whole ordeal did the actual bus driver make any motions to stop what was happening.
A fund has started to raise money for her to take a vacation. The initial hope was to raise a small amount, and at this point the total has passed $410,000.
There's the scoop. Here's my beef; the question the media is pushing is wether it is right or wrong for Karen to get this fund thats been raised for her. On a radio program this morning, one of the listeners called in and said they felt it was wrong and that it shows how greedy America has become. While I agree America is not a humble nation, I have to ask where the selfishness is. If I see a need and want to reach out to help, at what point do I stop people from giving and say, "whoa, that's too much compassion!"?

If anything, I find hope in all of this! The fact that a few Americans can start out with the intention of raising a few dollars to help someone take a peaceful vacation and it turn into thousands shows we really don't have to be caught in a recession and nation-wide debt if we pull our resources together. It amazes me that in a time when no one apparently has any money, and jobs are at an all time low, a few thousand people can put $500k in an envelope and give it away to one person as a gift in the hopes that they'll feel like maybe life isn't so bad.

Hope from this story also comes from the simple fact that people still come together to respond to a neighbor in need. In a world that claims it's a vicious war of every man for himself, a web of support for one another can still be found. This gift of compassion was pulled together in less than a day, and it's still a growing fund! Imagine the encouragement we would have for each other and value we would see in ourselves if we learned from the love Karen is being shown through those who want her to know she didn't deserve the torture she went through. What can we learn from Karen's ability to stay strong and hold back her anger through more than ten minutes of seclusion and harassment, then afterward standing up and saying she doesn't want to press charges and still loves the kids that showed her so much hatred? Instead of doing everything we can to find the wrong, how could we build the bridges that would connect all of our islands of pride together to become a united nation again? There is hope, but hope doesn't do the work for us. It is not something we obtain by waiting for it to cone to us; we must run to it.