CBS WKBT News Anchor Jennifer Livingston calls out a bully on live television, and inspires people everywhere.

The internet is many things. It’s an entertainment tool, a place of knowledge, an outlet, even. It’s a place of anonymity, and with that anonymity comes cruelty. A video of news anchor Jennifer Livingston has gone viral recently, and on the surface this video calls out a bully for calling her fat. This video is so much more than that. Take a look:

I want to take a moment to stand up and applaud Jennifer for having the courage to confront this man on live television. It is surely an act that people around the country do not agree with, and I am sure it has sparked even more vicious comments from the cowards that hide behind their computer screen. What I really want to applaud her for, is not just sticking up for herself, but for sticking up for all people. Not just people who are overweight, not just girls, not just children, but anyone who has ever been bullied. Anyone who has ever even just been insulted by another human being. We are all guilty of it. I am guilty of it. We think that people in the public eye, whether it be news anchors or musicians or actresses, are all above us and so that means that we can say whatever we want about them. However, in doing so, we are teaching younger people that saying hurtful things about strangers, or even people we know, is an acceptable thing to do. We are telling them that it is okay to go on the computer and tell a stranger that she is ugly, that he is stupid, that they are talentless and worthless. What’s scarier yet is just how many times I have seen people tell others to kill themselves. How fucked up is that? How fucked up are we as a human race?

October is one of my favorite months. This is my birthday month, halloween, Breast Cancer Awareness month and National Bullying Awareness Month. People treat bullying as just something that happens, a rite of passage, but it shouldn’t. It isn’t. We should be celebrating one another, not bashing each other. No matter what a person looks or acts like. No matter what kind of genitalia a person is attracted to. We are all human beings that bleed the same color and when we die we all get put into the same ground. We gain NOTHING by putting down other people.

For the month of October I urge everyone to say at least one nice thing about another person every day. For 31 days take the time to compliment another person instead of insulting them. Write positive comments, smile at someone at the store when they walk by you. We have the power to make our country and our world a better place in the same way that we have the power to destroy the world we live in.