FIRST IMPRESSIONS First Impressions
Bullying seems to be the most dangerous of the destructive types of behavior that are running rampant in today’s society. Bullying awareness is taught in many homes, churches and schools.
When we think about bullies, our minds often go to the big kid who lords it over the smaller ones on the third grade playground. Yes that may go on, but there are many more forms of bullying and some are more insidious. And yes, many kids are scarred for life and others take their own lives.
I have my own “bullying” history. When I was in the 8th grade at Red Bank High School in Tennessee, another girl and I were singled out and bullied. What was our offense? The other girl, who I will call Ellen was accused of stealing money out of a friend’s purse. I stuck up for her character and defended her. From that day forward, the 8th grade was a living hell for both of us. (I still do not believe that Ellen took the money.) Even as I relate the story today, tears of anger and hurt well up in my chest. Ellen and I spent our year being ridiculed, tickled until we would cry for mercy and in general we were ostracized. The teach- ers ignored it if they even saw it. I had gone all the way through school with these kids, but They gleefully joined in. My mother told me to ignore them. Lucky for me the ring leader moved away the next year and so did Ellen.
Later my son was a victim of bullying his first week at the new elementary school. Fortunately for him, I had studied enough Karate to teach him self-defense. He was a big kid, not overweight in the second grade, but big enough that when he learned a round-house kick and how to throw a punch, it made the bully back off and the rest of the kids respect him.
Nowadays if you defend yourself against a bully by using physical force, the results are the same for you as for the bully. How fair is that?
Bullies come in all shapes and sizes. There are bullies in the workplace, bullies on the streets, bullies in the check-out lines at the supermarket. Airport security is a legal excuse for bullying. We, like obedient sheep com- ply. Some don’t have a choice but to permit the scanners to view their naked bodies or to have the agents grope their genitals. Their jobs depend on it. They must travel for business. Now “Homeland Security” is stopping cars on the roadways. They are going to the bus and train stations and the sporting events.
Our government is now the biggest bully of all. See my article on page 21. The government forced one man into suicide. In the 7 wonders I recount an incident in which a man was jailed for not completing the siding project on his house. How many other ways are we bullied by big government, big agriculture, big pharma, big oil and so on? Bullying is top down – is it any wonder that bully- ing is on the rise among the kids?
Oracle 20/20 April 2012
Sherry Henderson Editor Publisher
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