there through, of their suffering. he posted a message on youtube, a part of the it gets better project. even if his sadness, jamie was reaching out to help others. this is jamie rodemeyer in his own words. >> hello. this is jamie from buffalo, new york. i'm just here to tell you that it does get better. here is a little bit of my story. december 2010 i thought i was bi, and then i always got made fun of because i virtually have no guy friends. and i only have friends that are girls. and it bothered me because people would be like faggot and they would taunt me in the hallways, and i made a forum which i shouldn't have done and people would send me hate tell meeg that gay people go to hell. >> he said he constantly got hate messages on formspring, which is a site that allows kids to send anonymous messages to each other. back then, as you hear, he said he rose above the negativity. here's more of what jamie had to say. >> and i just want to tell you that it does get better because when i came out for being bi, i got so much support from my friends. it made me feel so secure. and then if your friend ors family is even there for you, i look up to one of the most supporting people of the gay community that i think of that i know, lady gaga. she makes me so happy, and she lets me know that i was born this way. and that's my advice to you from her. we were born this way. all you have to do is hold your head up and you'll go far because that's all you have to do. just love yourself. >> love yourself and you're set. now here ta's the last part of message. perhaps the most chilling. >> i promise you it will get better. i have so much support from people i continue even know don. i know that sounds creepy. they're so nice and caring they don't ever want me to die. >> they don't ever want me to die. last sunday he took his own life. he was 14 years old. we do know at jamie's school they did have some type of bullying prevention program. a lot of schools have programs like that. more and more states are enacting anti-bullying laws for school. but there are some associations and lawmakers who say all this isn't needed. organization like focus on the family saying that they're just ways to promote a so-called gay agenda. candy cushman an education analyst for the group posted this on true tolerance.org. what parents need to be aware of is there are activist groups who want to promote homosexuality in the minds of our children at the earliest ages, they'll have won the clash of values that we are currently experiencing. then robert newman head of the california coalition. his his group is planning to fight new legislation by governor brown against the anti-discrimination laws and compel schools to teach transgender and gay history. here's mr. knewman with what he said this past week at the convention in los angeles. we found this on thinkprogress.org. >> it's part of growing up, a part of maturing. it is not something in which i engaged. i grew up in a christian home. i didn't engage in that kind of behavior. people were people. we knew they were unusual behaviors, but we went on with life. i hardly think that bullying is a real issue in schools. there's no reason to have a special bill for, let's say, 3% of the population, period. >> well, newman is not alone in that thinking. in kentucky, house bill, a state lawmaker named hartman is fighting the bill. listen. >> someone just in conversation saying, i think homosexuality is a sin. we don't want that child to be bullied because they have a certain moral or religious belief. we don't want them labeled a bully just because they have that particular belief. >> let's not forget the civil rights negotiation going on outside minneapolis. the u.s. justice department is investigating several incidents involving bullying and harassment. the community is embattled in a war in the classroom. joining me is author of "queen bees and wanna-bes," the book that inspired the movie "mean girls" and rachel simmons who wrote the book "odd girl out." you say you know jamie rodemeyer, how so? >> when i saw the video, of course, my heart just broke, and it reminds me of so many kids that i work with. and i've got kids right now that i'm e-mailing an ta ining and td their parents. one day they feel they can make it and they've got the strength to get by and the next day they feel that they can't. i think that's the thing that we see. it's so amazing to me that people don't -- and parents and adults that we just heard from don't understand and can't understand that parents, when they look at their own kids, that they've got experiences and pain in school and their lives and the parents might not know or feel out of control to actually make their kid safe. and what i don't understand is why adults that we heard from don't get this. because our kids are really in pain. and we've got to be able to be there for them. >> rachel, to those who say that bullying is just a teenage rite of passage, what do you say? >> i say that person has never been to a school or certainly is not listening. we live in a -- where 60,000 -- stay home every day because they're too afraid to go to school. and anybody who spends time in a school and talks to kids knows that there's a culture both of everyday cruelty but also of protracted campaigns that kids cannot escape. when there are no rules at schools, when there's no consciousness and when there's a denial of the problem, kids cannot be safe and they cannot study. >> there are those who say -- and we just heard from some on the program -- who say, look, this is a way to spread the homosexuality or acceptance of homosexuality in schools throughout the country and some parents are saying, look, i don't feel comfortable with that. >> well, i think that's ridiculous. because when we talk about kids being safe from bullying, we are not talking about a pro homosexual agenda unless a pro homosexual agenda is that we think all children deserve to be treated with dignity. and if that is the pro homosexual agenda, then i as a straight person, i'm completely for it. and i would hope that we would all be behind that kind of agenda. to think that we can in any way be against kids being safe for some kind of so-called agenda besides kids being safe makes absolutely no sense. i believe when we have kids that are important to us or we have relationships with, we've got to get beyond the politics of this and look at our children and be able to go where they are and to be useful to them and meaningful to them so they can trust us that we can be safe for them. >> but there is the idea that the school district in minnesota where they have what they call a neutrality policy. >> right. >> where they're not using specific words of gay or lesbian -- you say that's not effective. >> it's not only not effective, it's actually counterproductive to everything rachel just said. neutrality in the face of an abuse of power is not neutrality. it is siding with the bully. so if you are going to believe in what's called neutrality policy, a way or kids to go after other kids. >> rachel, do you agree with that that you have to use these terms, that neutrality doesn't work or so-called neutrality doesn't work? >> i do think that neutrality doesn't work. i find the whole thing shocking. we don't send american workers to the workplaces just do your job and we're not going to protect you if something happens to you. we can't send children to school assuming that we're going to teach you and not protect you if something happens to you. we're not educating part of the child. we have to be mindful of the whole child if we want to do justice to our education system and to the young citizens of our country. >> and i also think what's happening and you heard it in one of the clips is that -- and i believe it was the politician from kentucky, which is that he's saying, if i have this correctly, that the children who are bullying, if they believe that homosexuality is wrong and that's their value system, then they should be allowed to express that against other students. and what that means is that they are able to be mean and cruel to other students. and that is an extraordinary thing to say. what you're saying is these values that we think are so important and are christian, which i know many christian people who don't believe this whatsoever, that those values enable children to bully other children and justify and reinforce the notion that it's t okay to bully other children. that would be unbelievable coming from our leaders and adults that our children need to depend on to be safe at school. >> we invited mike harmon to be on the program. we didn't hear back from him. next month we'll air a special report on bullying where we've hired a sociologist to study in a particular school why kids bully one another. and what they found is that lgbt kids are actually victimized at a higher rate than the regular student population or kids who are perceived to be lgbt. is that in line with other research out there? >> absolutely. what we see is that the word "gay" particularly among boys but girls, too, is used for anything weird, stupid or odd, but it is used to punish kids who don't live up to masculinity or femininity. for kids, fitting in, being like everyone else is so important. and these words are used to stigmatize over and over again. you ask any boy or girl what is the most common word used to shame someone, and it will often be the word "gay." >> it also seems to be the one derogatory term that teachers just accept or ignore. if someone was using the "n" word, they would be hauled in front of the principal's office or given a talk to. but they get a pass. >> but it's about teachers not being given the tools to do that. if you're a math teacher -- this is what i do when i teach teachers. look, you don't have to show a documentary. you don't have to do a big classroom. you need to be teaching math. but if children are putting each other down and someone using the word "gay," mark, you may not use that word to put somebody down in my classroom. are we done? good. and you move on. it takes 15 seconds. every kid in that classroom knows that you're a safe teacher, you are a fair teacher and you care for the safety of every kid in that student -- in that classroom. >> i appreciate you both being on. we teamed up with the cartoon network and facebook to try to get at this from all different angles. there's an app on facebook where you can pledge to do everything to stop bullying. facebook.com/stopbullyingspeakup . join us also for our special series of reports, bullying, it stops here, starting october 9th on cnn. we're on facebook, follow me at twitter @andersoncooper. up next, rick perry is attacking president obama's stance on israel ahead of a vote at the u.n. on the palestinian right to statehood. is he trying to win over jewish voters or is this a pitch to gain support from the evangelicals. plus crime and punishment. the sole survivor of that horrific connecticut home invasion testifying about the murders of his wife and two daughters. reliving the horrific day dr. william petit's heartbreaking testimony on the stand. dramatic new video of the crash at the reno, nevada, air races. an eyewitness to the disaster joins us ahead. 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start a conversation about using more natural gas vehicles in your community. borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology from cadillac to develop its suspension system? magnetic ride control -- pioneered by cadillac, perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. gop fron-runner rick perry blasting president obama's stance on israel. he held a news conference with several jewish leaders just days before the u.n. vote to determine the palestinian right to statehood. tomorrow in new york president obama will meet with palestinian president mahmoud abbas to talk about that vote. senior u.s. official described the meeting as an effort to avoid a diplomatic showdown. today rick perry, who is obviously obama's potential opponent in the 2012 election, called the president's middle east policy toward israel quote naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous. you might think he's trying to win over jewish voters but many think he's trying to win over evangelicals. listen to what he told reporters today. >> obviously, israel is our oldest and most stable democratic ally in that region. that is what this is about. i also, as a christian, have a clear directive to support israel. >> joining us now, two of our political contributors james carville and erick erickson, editor of redstate.com really hitting the israel issue hard this week. it is all about the palestinian push at the u.n. or do they really think they have a shot at weakening obama? >> i don't know. he has talked to the israeli defense as the most decorated person in history who was very complimentary of the obama administration. i would suggest that he talks to the former president of his alma mater at texas a&m who bush appointed secretary of defense under president obama and i think he'd learn a lot more on that than referring to religious texts. >> erick, is this aimed at jewish voters or evangelical voters? >> both, but within the republican primary. he's not closed the deal with republicans as a lot of people expected him to. with his debate performances. so he needs to solidify on evangelicals to make sure that michele bachmann doesn't get them back. but jewish republicans ars constituency that he needs to lock down. they are trending towards mitt romney. this is a play for states, not a play for popular vote. locking down evangelicals in a way he hasn't before and getting some jewish republicans away from mitt romney are two strategies to employ right now. that's the right topic with ahmadinejad coming. >> the latest gallup poll, michele bachmann's support is at 5%, down by half in less than a month. is he the howard dean of the 2012 race? what has happened to her? >> well, no, howard dean was a lot stronger than her for a lot longer. if you remember, a few weeks ago ari and i got in a tiff. i didn't think she was serious three weeks ago. i'm not surprised by this at all. i doubt that america's very surprised by it either. it was a really boone, but you can sense it. i still think you this only makes it more likely that sarah palin will get in. i still think she will. >> you still think she may. really? >> i do. i absolutely do. >> why? what makes you think that? >> well, i think that if you look at just what she's been doing and everything else, that bachmann has collapsed, she'll look at that and sense that there's sort of a spot for her in that. i thought she was going to get in for a long time. i still do. and i don't think that she's on a normal campaign schedule like anybody else. i think she has her own way of doing things and her own time schedule. the more this goes on, the more i think she'll get in. >> erick, do you think she'll get in? >> i'll believe it when i see it. she may well. james is right she has her own schedule. she'll do it if she wants to do it. right now i don't think she will, but that could change in like five seconds. >> with bachmann down and romney up, is it possible that bachmann's supporters are going to the romney cam? >> very much so. we see she's down 5 and romney's up 7. i think so. largely because perry hasn't been able to close the deal like people thought he would. i expected bachmann to have more staying power than this. i'm surprised she's fallen so fast. i wouldn't say the dean comparison is apt. but her hpv, gardasil mental retardation blip was the dean scream. the dying gasp. it came a lot sooner than i expected it to. >> james, the last tile you were on this program you were unhappy with president obama and the people around him. you said it was time for the white house to panic. i think that's the word you used. should she they take their finger off the panic button right now? how are they doing after this week's speech? >> obviously, in a way, they need to change course, they need to go in a different direction. i think that they indicated they're doing that this week. but the question is the president always gives a good speech. he's become a fine speaker, articulate man. to see if there's follow-up beyond what he said. if he does that, there's a pretty good indication that he's changing directions. the debt deal in august that ended in two elections was a pretty good signal that they had to do something different. they respond to the signal. >> erick, do you think the white house is kind of changing course? >> like with sarah palin, i'll believe this when i see it. i agree with james is saying. he gives a good speech. a speech that a lot of my democratic friends were encouraged by. even they were saying, let's see will he cave again to the republicans or hold fast. like last time a lot blaming him for cutting a deal too good for our side. although i disagree with him. we'll see what happens. the day after the 2006 elections bush fired rumsfeld. the day after the 2010 election, obama did not fire geithner. and that has plagued a -- perplexed a number of us. from james' op-ed the other day, why are a lot of these people still there? if he wants to really move the country forward, i don't think he can do it with the same faces. >> we'll leave it there. or james, go ahead, if you want. >> no, no, no. just was going to make a point that best time to plan 25 years ago, second best is right now. maybe he's starting. let's see it. maybe he'll make some of these personnel changes between now and the first of the year. we'll see. just ahead an important day at the united nations. libya's revolution was celebrated and president obama vowed to protect civilians still threatened by the gadhafi regime. heartbreaking testimony in a triple murder trial. the sole survivor of that brutal home invasion in connecticut describes the day he lost everything, his beloved wife and daughters. 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