Standing Up to Bullies

The world isn't fair. Never has been, may never be. Toughen up and get used to it. Roll up your sleeves and swing back. I've always had a considerable amount of empathy for those who are bullied, those who are falsely maligned, and anybody that people look down on. Maybe it's because as a sensitive four-eyed little kid I caught a lot of flack in school, not just from the bigger, tougher boys, but from overbearing, punitive teachers. My early years have far too many memories of being jacked up against the lockers for my lunch money, then sat in the corner or spanked because I may have been a bit mischievous in class. Funny thing is that I don't recall ever doing or even thinking of doing anything bad or mean.

Probably because I was bullied so much, until I fought back, I have always stood up for the little guy. Entering the teaching profession after college I had ambitions of changing the world. The same nasty teachers I had when I was a kid growing up suddenly became my colleagues; only the names and faces changed. Faculty rooms were abuzz with the latest innuendo about those kids labeled as bad. Once a kid had a reputation in the faculty room, he or she would pay a severe price until they either quit or somehow survived to graduate. Not only that, but all of that kid's siblings that followed had a mark against them by the time they reached the same level.

I never bought into labels. There were no bad kids in my mind, so I took those labeled as such under my wing. Bad kids (those I referred to as creatively deviant) thrived in my classes not only because they found no judgment and refuge there, but because they received extra support and special encouragement. After helping dozens of bad kids find confidence and direction, I concluded that bad kids, of all students, are generally the ones with the best crap detectors. Setting aside all of the goody-good kids, it was the ones with the best crap detectors that had the most potential to make a difference in life after they escaped academia. They knew that what teachers was shoveling was largely a bunch of crap; what set the bad kids apart from the rest is that they weren't afraid to say so.

I consider that I have a fairly well developed and experienced crap detector myself. The world is still not fair. There are a lot more bullies out there now and so much more crap to wade through. It is no longer just little people that get pushed around, and the extraneous nonsense is a lot deeper than it used to be. I like to think I shovel more crap than I create these days, but who's to say!!

If Donald Trump was a little kid, he would be my hero for standing up to adversity, and I would be his champion. Never in my life have I seen anyone so bullied and so maligned. A lesser man could not have stood up to the threats and abuse he has endured since the moment he agreed to represent the people in elective office. It has been a never-ending series of forays of aggression and hatred with the unbending intent of removing him from the office he was elected to serve - by whatever means necessary. The distracting fabrications of wrong-doing that follow one upon another are becoming tedious and tiresome. The entrenched establishment is not going to let it go. He was elected by all the little people that are tired of being pushed around to bring about the end of the overreach and abuse of power of those few who make the rules that govern the rest of us, otherwise viewed as bullies by a majority of the electorate.

So, I stand in defense of this president. My crap detector is ringing loud and clear - and rarely is quiet these days. Mr. Trump, despite his sometimes odious nature, can be a masterful counter-punching bully himself, but remains a breath of fresh air in a town known for its big-time stink. When a majority of the opposition party, the media at large, and Hollywood personalities go on attack against the bad orange man, my natural instincts scream to stand with my back against his, counter-punching his adversaries along side him, shoveling hard to dig us out of the pile of crap they have buried our country under.