BULLIED - A Young Man's Battle Against Intolerance

From the time he entered 6th grade, the unrelenting bullying took its toll. He dropped out of high school, became homeless and lived for years in a homeless shelter.

Then, with the support of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the US Dept. of Justice, and the US Dept. of Education, Jamie went to court and fought for the right to be safe at school, even if you are gay, and won. His inspiring story offers hope for millions of gay and lesbian students who still don't feel safe at school.

It was the SPLC that produced this amazing documentary so that others can be inspired by this story.

The Southern Poverty Law Center inspires me.
They fight hate, teach tolerance, and seek justice. Reading any one of those links will inspire you, too.

I got involved with the SPLC way back in the '80's when I was teaching in Middle School in Maryland. I came across their Teaching Tolerance classroom materials. There was a broad array of items, which also included some videotaped documentaries on subjects as diverse as the Holocaust and the life of Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks.

I loved it, and with the assistance of another teacher and the Media Specialist, got sets of the free materials in all of the Middle and High Schools in the County system and signed up every teacher to receive Teaching Tolerance magazine.

That's about when I began donating to the Southern Poverty Law Center. I saw how they were winning lawsuits against members of the Ku Klux Klan and Neo Nazi hate groups. How they were fighting laws that discriminated against the poor and disenfranchised.

I was honored today to receive a visit from Char Jones, the Advancement Director from the SPLC. She was in Tucson from their Montgomery, Alabama home for a few days and wanted to make a point of spending some time with me to thank me for my unwavering support over the years.

She could have been doing so many other things than spending three hours with me (and Zippy) on my patio eating fruit and croissants and drinking coffee.

There are so many worthy charities out there these days that it is difficult to decide where to donate. One is pulled in a million different directions. But I have made no secret where my major charitable contributions have gone each year.

The scholarship I have created for education students at my former college and here. Now that the scholarship is fully endowed, I can divert some of those dollars elsewhere so I will search, perhaps for another worthy home for them. But the SPLC will always be the top of my list.