Townhall...
The
Bullied Gene
By Mike Adams
7/29/2011
Yesterday,
when I was arguing with a
liberal he told me I was entirely too harsh in my assessment of today’s
youth.
He told me specifically that I needed to be aware of the fact that in
21st
Century America one out of five boys gets bullied in school on a
“regular
basis.” I don’t know where he got that statistic but it really made me
ashamed
of my country. We need to do better. When I was a kid back in 20th
Century
America everyone got bullied in school. Those really were the good old
days.
My
most memorable experience with
bullying came during the 1972-73 school year when I was a student at
Whitcomb
Elementary School in Clear Lake City, Texas. The highlight of the year
was Mrs.
Ogden who was a total babe (sorry for the antiquated language but I’m
telling a
story about the 1970s). The lowlight of the year was dealing with some
punk
named Brian who sat next to me during the last part of the spring
semester.
Brian was constantly bragging about how tough he was – probably because
he was
short and had a Napoleon complex.
Eventually,
Brian’s bragging about his
fighting ability got old – even for Brian. So, one day, he challenged
me to a
fight on a specific day at a specific time in the schoolyard. Like a
wimp, I
faked being sick that day so I could stay home and avoid the
confrontation.
That strategy backfired. After wimping out on my scheduled
confrontation with
Brian he issued another challenge. And that led to another absence from
school,
which was excused by another fake illness. My mother was beginning to
catch on.
Fortunately,
the end of the year was
near and I got to spend the summer at home and away from the bully in
my second
grade class. My parents even sent me to a baseball camp at nearby San
Jacinto
College where I would be instructed by real college baseball players. I
wasn’t
aware that Brian’s best friend Mike would be attending the same
baseball camp.
I
wasn’t really expecting it when Mike
came up behind me and shoved me in front of a bunch of the other little
league
players – many of whom were also my schoolmates. But the second I
turned around
and saw him I knew that he had shoved me for one reason and one reason
only:
His best friend Brian had told him I was a wimp who wouldn’t stand up
to a
bully. So I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances. I
punched
him in the mouth.
After
Mike put his hand to his mouth
and realized he was bleeding there was a real look of horror on his
face. So I
punched him again – this time in the nose. And after Mike sunk to his
knees and
started waving his hands in surrender I began to hit him with a barrage
of
uppercuts until he was lying on his back in the middle of the outfield
crying
like a little girl.
The
next spring when I was standing in
line for a snow cone after a game in Bay Area Park I saw Mike and Brian
in the
line ahead of me. Mike acknowledged me and asked if everything was
“cool”
between us. After I told him it was “cool” Mike turned to Brian and
said “He
really beat the crap out of me last summer.” So we all became friends
and no
one bullied anyone after that.
That’s
how we dealt with bullying when
I was a kid. Someone picked on someone until he got fed up and learned
that he
had to defend himself. It was all a part of learning to be a man. When
the
inevitable fight was over the bully and the bullied became friends. And
no one
really contemplated shooting up the school in retaliation.
But
today things are different. The
state is increasingly seeing itself as the agent responsible for
stopping
bullying. And they are increasingly interested in monitoring bullying
throughout all levels of the educational process. At my university,
there is
actually a guide that directs students to various government resources
that can
help students who are experiencing bullying.
Interestingly,
the guide defines
bullying as “the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them [sic]
do
something.” Since other campus programs focus on the disproportionate
bullying
of homosexuals this seems to be a tacit admission that homosexuals are
indeed
“weaker person(s).” In other words, the implications of their approach
to this
topic have not been well-thought-out. Few things are “thought” through
in
higher education today. People generally “feel” their way through
problems.
Speaking
of educators, they are the
ones most likely to jump on the anti-bullying bandwagon. And when they
do there
is always a plethora of recommendations and strategies focusing on
government
intervention – all organized within the framework of our public schools
and
funded by the over-burdened taxpayer.
Some
people believe the government
should stop bullying because we have so many defenseless effeminate
young men
in the public school system. But I believe we have so many defenseless
effeminate young men in the public school system because people believe
the
government should protect them from bullying. That’s the difference
between the
liberals and me. And I’m pleased to offer my advice at no expense to
the
taxpayer.
Put
simply, the question of whether
one will or will not be bullied is largely a matter of choice. You can
either
remain the boy who is bullied or you can become the man who fights
back. I
don’t think the former are restricted by what is in their genes. More
likely,
it’s just what’s missing in their jeans.
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it at Townhall
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