#66- Rick Mercer

There's a point in many slap stick movies where the main characters is reduced to a blubbering mess or a dazed out zombie by some overwhelming conflict in their lives. This cues the character's best friend/sidekick/rival-turned-friend to slap the guy or gal in the face to bring them back and ultimately topple the obstacle standing in the way of a happy ending.

Thankfully we have Rick Mercer to be that slap in the face for our country.

I'm thinking mostly about his rants, the minute or two-long monologues he has on his show where he vents about something in society that he thinks isn't quite right.

When youth weren't voting, Mercer made us realize how lucky we are to be able to mark the ballot and that we actually could make a difference.

When the Canadian government refused to name asbestos as a hazardous material, he shamed them for shipping the cancer-causing material to developing nations.

And in the wake of another devastatingly tragic teen suicide he came out and gave us the walloping we needed to hopefully take action.

In his latest rant, Mercer talks about Jamie Hubley, a 15-year old gay boy from Ottawa who took his own life after years of bullying, which mostly targeted his sexuality.

Mercer gets angry, and rightfully so, that this horrible bullying is not only still happening, but appears to go unpunished and urges his fellow Canadians to stand up and do something about it now.

"It's no longer good enough to tell kids who are different that it's going to get better. We have to make it better now," he says, "Every teacher, every student and every adult has to step up to the plate."

"Adults don't need role models, kids do," Mercer says in his rant, ending by saying "300 kids, is 300 too many," talking about the number of kids who commit suicide every year in Canada.

Reading the news stories, it's easy to see how amazing a kid Jamie Hubley was and how devastating a loss it was for everyone who knew him and for a world that needs people like him.

It’s also easy to see that we need to join together and take action now against every form of bullying, especially homophobic language which is so prevalent in hallways and classrooms of schools.

So I am grateful for Rick Mercer. I am grateful that he stands up for those causes and people that many others ignore. I am grateful that he's brave enough to grab millions of people in this country by the shoulders and shake them with the (sometimes) hard truth. And I am grateful that he's there to give us those slaps in the face that we need. Hopefully now we can wake up out of our daze and make this world a better place. I see hundreds of awesome things every day; there’s no way this isn’t possible as long as we work together for good.

See Mercer's video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh1jNAZHKIw