Bullying

[howeird]

I may have posted about this before, but FB memes have driven me to it today.

Keeping this public. Would have posted on FB, that's too public.

I was bullied as a child. It started around 3rd grade, when I was one of the smallest kids in school, definitely the smallest in my class. I always fought back. I never won, or even came close.

By the time I was in high school, I was the shortest and one of the fattest kids in class. 5'2", 150 lbs. I was still bullied, and I still fought back. I won twice.

The first time I caught a tall kid wearing a sweatshirt he had stolen from my gym locker. As we were going down the stairs I punched him in the side of the head, which smashed against the wall. The sweatshirt was back in my locker the next day.

The second time I was in the band room, and this nasty skinhead kid took a swing at me. I threw him with a move I'd learned in judo class. He flew across the room (band rooms are BIG), and he landed on his back among a forest of music stands. He never bothered me again. And I think that was the last time anyone did.

The only time an adult took any interest was toward the end of 5th grade, when I threw a rock at a bully, hit him in the head, and the teacher decided to have me assigned to a different class for 6th grade. Worst year of my childhood, 6th grade.

My parents were concerned about my often coming home from grade school with a bloody nose, but I honestly didn't know the older kids who beat me up, it was after hours, there was nothing they could do, really. Nothing ever got broken. Never needed stitches or a trip to the ER.

I survived. I don't think bullying affected me in the long term. Maybe it made me more considerate of others, but maybe not. I didn't go all Rocky Balboa and pump up. I didn't continue judo after that one year (got a brown belt from Bruce Lee's first judo teacher, that was good enough for me).

My point is that the huge anti-bullying extravaganza making the Political Correctness rounds these days is way out of proportion to the problem.  

Comments

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I think your point is incorrect.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I would agree with the first comment. I'll give a reason, one out of many. That's exactly the reason. You are one out of many. Your anecdote is true for you, but others, in different times and different places, have had different experiences. Basing everything on one's own experiences tends to put one's opinions off kilter. To exaggerate slightly, "Well, I was shot in the head once, but it just grazed me and I'm fine now, so I don't see why shooting people in the head ought to be a crime." The same cheap rationalization is used by smokers and their enablers, "Well, smoking doesn't bother ME, so let's have it in restaurants and workplaces and everywhere else."

Fact is, kids who are bullied sometimes bring guns to school and kill people. This has been happenng a lot. Maybe you didn't, but that doesn't mean Columbine didn't happen.

[howeird]

Last things first. The theory that Columbine was retribution for bullying has been debunked. It was more about a psychopath wanting to do something even bigger and more deadly than the Oklahoma bombing. The main weapon was a miswired home made bomb which would have destroyed the whole building and most of the people in it. The shooting was originally intended to merely pick off the few people who managed to escape the explosion.

If smoking bothers you, don't patronize establishments which condone it. Vote with your feet.

As for being shot in the head, Gabby Giffords and her husband have not given up their guns, and don't plan to. I also don't see them calling for de-criminalizing shooting people in the head.

And firstly, I *am* my experiences. And how I'm wired. Somehow, I was wired to not let being punched in the nose a few times a month stand in the way of my self-esteem. YMMV, as they say.