NOUN [PLURAL BUL·LIES.]
1.a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.
I’ve seen my share of bullying, in my time. Bullying is intimidation, and bullies like to harass people in the dark corners, where there are no witnesses, and no place to hide.
For me, it started in school, with getting teased over the type of shoes I wore. One time, I had 6th grade girls surround me, and tease me relentlessly about my pants. They were all in agreement. A big group of girl bullies, intent on making me feel like an outcast.
“Where’d ya get the pants Laura?” And they laughed, snickered, shunned me. I never wore those pants again.
Later, I got bullied about food stamps. I’ve been bullied by drug users who harassed me about being too straight. One time on a school bus, I was tormented about my hair, the entire 10 miles to school. I started riding my bike after that, (ten miles a day!) Just to avoid the bullies.
In the USAF, I was harassed down south, for being friends with a black sergeant, who was also a minister. They accused me of becoming like him, so I went out and got my hair done ‘Afro style’ and said, yes I am becoming like him! I was tired of the endless harassment for not fitting in or being the way “society” said I should be.
The endless harassment over my clothes (all through school) Led to me not caring what people think about my clothes. I didn’t get compensation, or special favors at the bank, or hiring preference, or anything like that, as a result of my bullying. I simply learned, not to care what these cheese heads think, about me!
So now, if anyone tells me I’m out of style? I am unaffected! I wear what I want to wear, and I fix my hair the way I want to. It worked out for my good, somehow.
Both of my kids were bullied too, at one time or another and some was pretty severe.
I’m not sure we can stop the process of “elitism,” or the mean streak, that seems to arise in insecure persons, who have no boundaries, and want to call us names.
Shall we sentence them to a year of duct tape over their mouths? (Sigh) I don’t know the answer. All I know is, I learned a long time ago, to let it go in one ear and out the other.
What you THINK Of me does not make me “who I am.”
What you THINK Of me does not make me “who I am.”
And the definition above is true. If we don’t see ourselves as weak or small, they cannot BULLY US any longer. The devil is the biggest bully of all.
We have assault laws in place already, and thou shalt not beat someone up for no reason. What Laws could possibly help, when bullies hide in the dark shadows, deny what they say, and even if we manage to shut them up, continue to slither around, looking for the next victim to harass!
What really gives bullies their power?
Knowing you are afraid of them.
If we no longer are, we take away their power.
Stand up. walk tall. Learn to be confident!
Bullies cannot get you, when you are not small or weak.
Ecclesiastes 7:19 Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
-Laura Grace
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