Bullies and Beat Downs
In 7th grade my friend Troy and I were walking through Woolworths one day. Suddenly one of the neighborhood bullies, Steven, came up on us and got in Troy’s face. Troy just turned and walked away. Steven followed closely behind, loudly verbally abusing him and threatening violence. I followed behind, not knowing what to do. Steven, being a big dumb bully, had flunked and so was older and larger than us. I was hoping that one of the adults within earshot of us would intervene, but none did.
Then Steven drew back his arm and punched troy in the back of the head as hard as he could, which sent Troy flying. I did… nothing. My friend was being attacked and I stood there, lest Steven’s fury turn to me. The only consolation we had was that, being dumb, Steven had punched Troy in his skull and hurt his hand, so he left.
Fast forward to after 11th grade. I was going to a different school for a year but I was back in town one summer day and walking down the street. I saw another friend, Bill, who was a year younger than I, delivering papers. Then up came another neighborhood tuff on his bike (I don’t remember his name) and got in Bill’s face. I was only 50 feet or so away.
Now, however, I was several inches taller, 25 lbs heavier, and had a year of karate under my belt. I yelled out to the bully. He said that it wasn’t my business. I told him Bill was my friend and I was making it my business. I told him I would put a beat down on him if he didn’t get lost. The bully sized me up and decided he didn’t like the odds, so he switched tactics. He said that I should mind my own business or he would go get his big brother (he lived close by). I told him to go get his big brother (an even worse bully) and I would put a beat down on both of them. He left and didn’t come back.
Bill looked up at me sheepishly with a big smile and thanked me for sticking up for him.
I hate war. I really do. Wars bring death, destruction, and suffering. Usually not endured by the bullies who start them. Wars almost always happen because some cowardly bully is has decided they can beat up a neighbor and they rely on the odds that no one will intervene.
Am I glad that we are in a war right now? Absolutely not. I wish that evil people would not be in control of countries and kill their own people and their neighbors. I wish that “leaders” would be reasonable and not bring us to a point of believing we need to intervene. WW II was an awful thing, but I am glad we intervened to put a stop to bullies. Perhaps if we had intervened a couple years earlier it would have been a lot easier to deal with. I wish we weren’t in our current war. But I also wish someone (me even) had intervened when Steven was attacking Troy and I was ashamed that I hadn’t.