Allen Shamblin and Steve Seskin wrote the incredible song, “Don’t Laugh at Me” in the ‘90s after Shamblin’s daughter came home from school, upset because the kids were teasing her because she had freckles.
The song, which has gone on to become something of an anthem for many grade school educators, says in part:
I’m a little boy with glasses
The one they call a geek
A little girl who never smiles
‘Cause I’ve got braces on my teeth
And I know how it feels
To cry myself to sleep
I’m that kid on every playground
Who’s always chosen last
A single teenage mother
Tryin’ to overcome my past
You don’t have to be my friend
But is it too much to ask
Don’t laugh at me
Don’t call me names
Don’t get your pleasure from my pain
In God’s eyes we’re all the same
Someday we’ll all have perfect wings
Don’t laugh at me
Kind of at the opposite end of the spectrum, you have William Melchert=Dinkel, who, according to the Associated Press, “used alter egos (on the Internet) to stalk victims and get them to commit suicide for the ‘thrill of the chase,’ prosecutors said in written arguments filed in advance of a court hearing in front of a judge who will decide whether the former nurse’s actions were criminal.”
“Prosecutors say he encouraged two people to take their lives, including 18-year-old Kajouji, of Brampton, Ontario, who jumped into a river in 2008; and 32-year-old Mark Drybrough, of Coventry, England, who hung himself in 2005.”
Why?
Because he could.
I’m the cripple on the corner
You’ve passed me on the street
And I wouldn’t be out here beggin’
If I had enough to eat
And don’t think I don’t notice
That our eyes never meet
Don’t laugh at me
Don’t call me names
Don’t get your pleasure from my pain
In God’s eyes we’re all the same
Someday we’ll all have perfect wings
Don’t laugh at me
I’m fat, I’m thin, I’m short, I’m tall
I’m deaf, I’m blind, hey, aren’t we all
Hopefully there are not a lot of folks out there like William Melchert-Dinkel, seeking victims.
But we all have the choice, every day, whether to reach into someone else’s life in a positive way or not.
One way or another, we will make that choice today.
What will it be?
— Chuck Smith