Bullying, The End of Civilization as We Know IT?
A bill aimed at ending bullying has passed in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate, but ignited a somewhat emotional wave of criticism among Democrats, TIME’s Swampland reports.The staunch opposition stems from the fact that the law allows harassment by teachers and students as long as they can claim their actions are rooted in a “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”
Damn those Republicans!
Then there’s this: West Virginia Proposed Anti-Bullying Policy Aims To Protect LGBT Students
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A proposed anti-bullying policy for West Virginia schools acknowledges for the first time that sexual orientation and gender identity are common reasons for harassment. Had it been in place when Michael White was in middle-school, it might have spared him the worst years of his life.“When I heard about this, I started crying because it’s been a long road,” said White, a 21-year-old junior at Fairmont State University who was bullied for being gay as a teen in St. Albans. “This is very, very necessary, and I really think it will be a massive step toward equality.”
I dunno? Bullying has grown rather broad.
With the one, a Muslim can jump slick even if he’s a suicide bomber. Yet I can’t say someone is a sissy?
Category: Geezer Alert!
I am so damn sick of hearing how gays are bullied ESPECIALLY… Like this is different from any other child that is different in school. Apparently our children are so fragile that bullying = suicidal victim. Laws aren’t going to stop the behavior that is as old as time. It is only going to go overboard, and some kid will be prosecuted because he offended someone.
My son is small and wears glasses. He was bullied mercilessly until he gave his bully a black eye. Incidentally the school punished my son and the bully.
Yet I can’t say someone is a sissy?
Depends on your religious beliefs. Jews and Christians can probably fall back on “thou shalt not bear false witness”.
And furthermore I think that our children aren’t killing themselves because of bullying-they are killing themselves because we told them that “life is equal.” We gave them all a trophy no matter how sucky they were at baseball, and told them all they were winners..
Anything that questions the status quo (like life) that says everything revolves around self-esteem- causes our children ungodly amounts of stress. And this generation of children does not know how to deal with stress.
/Rant out..
Malclave #2: I don’t get your reasoning. In truth I never even considered religion re: gay issues? Others certainly do without question. Don’t understand that either, really.
Melle1228 #3: There it is!
Fat? No problem. Ugly? No problem. Dumb as a brick? No problem. Smart as a whip? No problem. Spastic? No problem. Poor kid? No problem. Rich kid? No problem. Gay? Houston, we have a problem.
Though I raise my kids not to engage in any kind of bullying, on any grounds because it’s simply not necessary…..melle’s point is spot on.
Not keeping score…no winners/losers…keeping a class at the pace of the slowest student…all harms society in the long run.
you don’t end bullying by making laws and grandiose statements. you do it by empowering the bullied
Doc Bailey #8: I have no/zero/nil idea what that means? Please elaborate.
@4
My reasoning (such as it is… remember, I was Army ):
If you honestly believe someone is a sissy, you can claim that it would be “false witness” not to admit that.
You end bullying by empowering your child to beat the living hell out of the bully, and if the bully dares to get up, stomp the bully’s knees.
The other way is by permitting the kids to gang up on the bully. It’s not a fair fight unless your buddy’s winning.
This is just more of the pussification of American men.
maclave #10: Interesting twist. When religion is introduced I I remember 9/11 AND The Inquisition equally.
Can ‘o Worm – opened!
Bullies are kids that seek power by taking it from others Zero. When you stand firm, or can hold you own against a bully, the bullies tend to back down.
the more you try to suppress (and not confront) and action or an emotion, the stronger, and more extreme it becomes. A great example is in Japan. They can’t get it up unless there’s some bondage involved.
These “laws” are impossible to enforce. Any good officer knows that you do not give an order that will not be followed. Likewise you do not make a law you can not enforce.
#8: Not speaking for ya, Doc, but to me that means you teach him/her Krav Maga, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muy Thai, etc. Then wait for the next target of opportunity.
#1 It’s unfortunate that schools these days are tailored to support kids who bully others, it’s not a new problem and school administrations seem to be doing little to fix it. They will protect their star athletes from any type of disciplinary action when they’re found to be pushing around kids weaker than them. What I found out is, most of these punks will talk and talk and talk until you punch them in the mouth a few times. Then they don’t want to talk anymore. A kid that’s been bullied can turn out one of two ways: They get older and stronger and become bullies themselves, or, with proper guidance, they get older and stronger and become a decent human being because they appreciate their strength and at the same time understand weakness and can show compassion. Hate can be a good thing if it’s focused properly. Shit it got me through MCRD.
#13 Doc: T.M.I. Don’t even want to know how you learned that.
#14: actually ANY form or martial art. Tae Kwan Do works quite well, so does Tong Sou Do, and Aikedo. Anything really works so long as it keeps them active and teaches a child discipline.
#16: its called Sociology 101. get your mind out of the gutter. ALTHOUGH I did notice that a lot of the Hadji porn was Made in Japan.
@ #15 “Hate can be a good thing if it’s focused properly.”
Absolutely. I was adamantly against the emotion until I felt it myself… and realized exactly what it means not only to overcome it, but also to use it as a stepping stone to a greater self.
Yoda said: “Fear is the path to the Dark Side.
People who are afraid will act irrationally, and flail violently. The recent string of school shootings are a symptom of this. The death by cyberbullying is another. We give into our fears far too often.
It seems despite the charge of fearmongeting the Right tends to be better at ya know facing their fears. the Left tend to give into every passing shudder. its actually quite sad. A society given into fear will not long last.
That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
only if you know how to use it OS.
Agree.
This bullying thins is a backdoor effort to punish any”wrong” belief.
If you dare to say that homosexuality is wrong, you are a bully.
Just ask Dakota Ary.
True bullying should be stopped when a teacher/administrator witnesses it. That’s bullying for any reason. So far as I know, there isn’t a school in America where bullying is permissable. And yet we need a law to ban that which is already banned.
The problem is that we think we can legislate hate and ill will out of existence. We can’t. All we can do it lose our freedom.
By the way, the HuffPo’s summary of the bill is bullshit.
I remember bullies, one was introduced to his locker door quite intimately and the other stopped after I tried to dig through the concrete with him as the tool. Neither ever bothered me again. It’s amazing what standing up for yourself will do.
My Draughters and Grandsons are not Bullied. At the age of 5 to 8, Itraught them a tight fistm how to hold their hands and to throw straight punches with the snoulder and hips. I am a old school boxer. Joe
Right on Joe. The first thing I did when my oldest daughter came home complaining that some kid was picking on her was to teach her “Jab, Jab, PUNCH”. I thought my wife was going to have apoplexy. 🙂
Being the smaller kid in school most of the time, I got in plenty of boxing practice like it or not. Watching Mohamed Ali’s boxing style and a bit of training with a friend that was a Golden gloves boxer in the US Navy, the bullies learned to leave me and friends I stood up for alone…”Float like a butterfly, sting like a hornet”. hehe
I have a fierce temper (mostly under control now), and by the age of 6 I already had been in 3 fist fights. All 3 fights were precipitated by witnessing some kid picking on someone else, which so enraged me I just barreled in and punched the malefactor.
Self defense is an important lesson – so is defending others.
I got bullied – in High School and Jr. high – for being the fat female nerd. In other words, I was the slowest, least defended target available. When I complained in High School, because now it was more than just getting hit or having rocks thrown at me, the Asst. Principle suggested that the boys were “just trying to be friendly and have you tried being friendly back.” Yeah, grabbing me and groping me was “just friendly.” The crap finally stopped when I started getting all sorts of academic awards . . . and carried a cane because of a knee injury. I don’t think a law would have changed much of anything.
@Ben, #23, the reference to Dakota Ary should, for those with reasoning skills, explain why Michigan’s law was written the way it was. This is a way to stop the bullying of those who don’t hold the opinion that gays are entitled to “special” protections from the evil Christians. Of course, the liberals got their panties in a wad over it.
In this case, “religious tormenters”=”I think homosexuality is wrong”.
I always liked the late, great Mike Royko’s takes on bullying. To whit: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19900607&id=VUdSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cTYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3155,1226454
Smokin’ Joe Frazier died. Now, there was a helluva fighter. Never quit, kept coming, short punched opponents silly. If you never watched the Thrillas in Manilla fights Between Joe and Ali, man are you missing something.
I guess I have a unique perspective look on this from being on both sides of the issue. I was the bully and bullied. I was the youngest of three much larger and older step-brothers. They would bully the hell out of me and beat the crap out me on a regular basis, which in turn made me bully other kids. Now that I am much older I look back on those early years 1-3grades with a lot of shame. I feel bad for what I did to some of those kids. Kids get picked on for whatever reason it doesn’t have any specific reason. Shit a bully will find a reason to pick on someone no matter what: poor, rich, gay, nerd, hot mom, ugly sister, etc…
Some sound wisdom here, particularly #3 and #11.
Me…I was a skinny, underweight kid with thick glasses…yeah, I got my ass thumped on a regular basis in grade school.
Then, two of my uncles taught me a bit about boxing and mindset(one was a fireman and former USAF, the other a retired USAF MSgt and Memphis LEO). Fast forward to me punching a couple of kids out (one at church, the other two at school) and I was left the fuck alone. Then I took up intramural wrestling in prep school, and the canvas was complete.
Of course today, I’d have been kicked out of school, arrested, my parents sued…the usual progressive/PC crap so indicative of the pussification of this nation.