The Hypocrite

We all laughed at her. Sally with the big bones and an even bigger body. Standing at six feet while we were still in high school, she was the freak of the class. To be seen associating with her dealt a huge blow to one's reputation, so we all just steered cleared of her while calling her all sorts of names.

Yet Sally would smile, laugh with us, and try to hit us sometimes. We thought, "well, if she's such a good sport., then it's okay". We were too dense, too callous, too insensitive to see the tears behind that smile. Or maybe we didn't want to see it. Maybe we just wanted to make fun of someone, and she was the unlucky scapegoat.

Was she less human than any of us? No in actuality, but yes in our minds. Who's born like that? How can someone be so fat and so tall? Looking like a bowling pin... that's abnormal. We told her she was an alien from outer space that failed to completely copy the human appearance. It didn't help matters that her parents weren't well-to-do either.

OI for one shouldn't have joined the bandwagon. I came from a religious home, where we learned to love everyone as they were created by God. By why should I be the only one out? They'd call me her boyfriend, something I was desperate to avoid. Sorry Sally, but you're just collateral damage.

Yet I'd iron my best white and pair of trousers and go to church on Sunday, and I wouldn't mention it to the priest during confessional. My skin was pure and my clothes were clean, but they all masked the vilest of souls to walk the planet.

And then one day Sally committed suicide. Her note said things about all of us, and about the way we treated her, and how she felt worse about herself. Some of them had the effrontery to laugh. I lashed out in 'righteous' anger, telling them how wicked they were for forcing the poor girl's soul to eternal damnation in hell.

But who are you to judge? A voice said within me.

You who call yourself religious. Devout. Socially correct. Morally Upright. Yet you trampled upon her feelings and called her names. You have no right to speak to these people about the speck in their eyes when there is a log in yours.

I was broken, in spirit and the body. My conscience tortured me, and every night I could hear Sally's screams, calling out to me and asking why I didn't defend her.

Why I didn't defend my own cousin.

Today, most of my classmates have become lawyers, advocates, and people who speak out about societal and moral injustice. Some of them became just as fat as Sally, and now they preach about not body-shaming others.

Ironic, isn't it? How they all forgot what they did in the past?

Hypocrisy is a pandemic that can never be eradicated.