President Theodore Roosevelt used “bully” as an adjective of
commendation during his term in office from 1901 – 1909.
At the time I’m sure it was as fashionable as everyone using
the word “amazing,” today.
Over the past ten years, or so, we’ve been hearing about
something totally different, bullying.
Bullying is what some people or groups do to intimidate
others for any reason including power, attention, compensation, and
entertainment.
We heard the stories about school thugs who bully fellow
students and goad them into fighting, cowering, or even committing suicide.
A national effort arose to make parents and teachers aware
of the signs of bullying, along with possible solutions. And it was mostly feel-good rather than
substantive.
Kids still picked on others and parents showed how they
condoned such behavior by even videotaping the acts of intimidation.
And now we are back to square one in the battle.
A goofy group named Black Lives Matter has been bullying
presidential candidates on the campaign trail.
Everyone is afraid to condemn these characters because of the sacred
racial aspect.
Enter Donald Trump, a candidate for Chief Executive, who has
garnered nation-wide attention and admiration for his outspokenness and
frankness.
It seems as though the college pukes in America
A fraternity had made a symbolic wall on the Mexican border
out of sandbags. Black students
trespassed on the fraternity’s property to disassemble that wall by throwing
the sandbags into the street. Evidently
the black’s right to freedom of speech trumped the fraternity’s.
People who are being forced to quit smoking are threatened
with job loss because of an addiction.
They are required to smoke outside because others feel their personal
actions are detrimental or merely offensive.
And now the mere belief that global climate change is not
real is subject to physical restraint and perhaps “re-education.” That was a term used by the Soviets as an
excuse to imprison citizens in Gulags, FYI.
All these are examples of bullying that affect everyone, not
just children. It seems as though the
little school bullies grew up to bully the rest of us.
It is time to stop playing nice and tell the bullies to take
a long walk off a short pier.
