Monday, November 13, 2006
Bullies
Every so often, you read or hear a story about bullies in school in the USofA. It's far from a USofA problem. Here's an article on the BBC about some Japanese who committed suicide after being bullied. Did you notice it's not just kids? Bullies aren't only a school thing and they're nothing new. Bullies have been around forever and are everywhere. I've been pretty lucky in that my last couple of jobs haven't exposed to any bullies.
That's a far cry from when I went to high school. (And to give you an idea of how long ago that was, our phone had a dial and stayed in one place, there were just five channels of television available, and you still had to find a place to put your beer can pop-top.) One of my hopes (after all this time) is that someday I'll see one of those guys broke down on the side of the road, locked out of their car, with a pack wild voracious wolves bearing down on them. I'll wave, smile and drive to the next phone booth where I'd eventually find a quarter to call for help -- and then sleep quite soundly that night.
As far as I'm concerned bullies are not much different than rapists muggers who attack the weaker. The biggest problem is that bullies are usually not prosecuted the same way. How many times have you heard that they are "part of growing up." Why? Is someone who makes your life miserable five days a week, for nine months of the year really any less despicable than someone who hits you in the head once and steals your wallet?
