stanc Wrote:Hmm. All of that blood makes me wonder who was actually the bully...
No Stan, I was never a bully. I never started any fight, but I never ran from one either. Life is not care bears and unicorns and to believe other wise is a fools game. There are bad things in this world and learning how to deal with them is what makes us who we are.
stanc Wrote:The schools do sometimes go a bit overboard in punishing trivial acts, but basically they're instilling in the kids the same behavior that will be expected of them as adults: Call the authorities "if someone is mean to them."
If your neighbor makes harassing phone calls to you, or throws rocks at your house, you can't legally go over and beat him bloody; you're expected to call the police. If you try to "deal with it" yourself, there's a good chance that you will be arrested.
I guess we grew up in different worlds. It would have been suicide to throw a rock at a persons house in my youth. We had a group of scum take over a house in a nearby neighborhood. They beat the living hell out of an elderly neighbor man who yelled at them for speeding with kids all around. A week later, "late one night" they were visited by a couple of guys I know. The scum was gone by morning.
We were taught civics, and right from wrong. Having parents, teachers and stable families in our community were easy examples to learn from. Crazy as it may seem, I actually believe in those things. Yup, times have changed!
stanc Wrote:The flaw in your thinking is that not everybody is equipped (mentally or physically) to "deal" well with such issues. I certainly was not, when they happened to me.
The only time I was bullied in school was in the 4th Grade. While on the playground during recess, a classmate -- who was much bigger and stronger than I -- shoved me against the fence and pinned me there briefly. He had me immobilized, unable to do anything in response. I was totally stunned, never having experienced anything remotely like it before, so the only thing I could think of to do was tell the teacher about it.
The only time I ever failed in school, as well as the only time I was rejected by a girl, were even greater emotional shocks, and I was totally unprepared to deal with either.
That is the point Stan, it is our adversity that makes us who we are. You didn't get your fighting spirit for debate on this forum in a vacuum. Life is not fair. It isn't necessarily the winning or easy accomplishments in life that shapes us, but the failures, depredations, humiliations, and hardships we over come that shapes us. Obviously the killers who take a gun to school, "for what ever reason" were not taught this. You may not have been physically imposing Stan, but your keen wit and ability to think is not one of your weaknesses. I cannot see you crying to Gene if one of us was mean to you on this forum LOL. You are one of the best fighters I know LOL. The old saying: life is like a grinding wheel, it will either highly polish you or grind you to nothing, it all depends on what your made of.