In the past month or so, we've been soaked as in a thunderstorm with revelations of sexual bullying

Contributed By:Dorothy Nevils maslivend@sbcglobal.net

Most people have encountered a bully at one time or another and, if not, they’ve seen one… or two... In fact, if asked to describe one, there are some common traits that will pop up no matter who is doing the describing.

I’m going to step out here and paint my bully. He’s generally… Yeah, “he” is the first word, and it’s not just because when I was in school we were taught to use the masculine pronoun when the gender wasn’t specified... That’s a clue right there. Kinda like taxes: Always move up to the highest whole number, so if something costs $1.50, you pay $1.58, never $1.57. (That caused my kids’ embarrassment in the drive-thru. Since tax was built into each item, “Burger Thief” got “Happy Cents” with each order… and the line got longer… and the whine got stronger, until they hid themselves with each other and prayed for death – or at least another mother.)

See, “bullyism” is injustice in person, and it starts off with an advantage, and that advantage is usually size. In the case above, it was corporate vs. in-dividual, and it worked for most because it was so subtle that they didn’t notice – or those who noticed felt they had no power, and so, gave in.

Yes, bullies are most often male. Males are generally bigger, and size is an advantage. From grade school – and even earlier – the biggest and strongest have used that advantage over the others, making their lives miserable. They take things from those smaller and weaker, and so increase their girth, growing even stronger.

Just recently, this sin has been revealed in the animal world. Those who used – and I might say, “abused” – animals did it for profit, and most thought little of it. It was entertainment. We weren’t there when they were “trained” to follow commands to make people happy. But, someone spoke up, people listened with their conscience, and things changed.

Unfortunately, with the speed of lightning, things have changed again, and animals that had been protected from “bully boys” are now back on the “bully list.” Exotic animals can now be slaughtered by bully creatures, and their parts brought back home for “chest thumpers” to dis-play!

In the past month or so, we’ve been soaked as in a thunderstorm with revelations of sexual bullying. Men held in high esteem – powerful men in positions of control – have been re-vealed as predators. Women have come “out of the woodwork…” No! They’ve come out of the shadows… to point their fingers at that invisible mark that has shielded the scum from identity – and we’ve seen bullies deflated, dethroned, one by despicable one.

Yet, there are those who prop them up as they are revealed, as if in a Miss America Pa-geant. One, in fact, has sealed his space in this slew of scumbags with his own mouth – and yet holds favor with those who, by gender if not by opportunity, would, too, be defiled.

Just as in the schoolyard, no bully will be stopped until faced with a wall of people brave enough to face the monster, look it in the eye and say, “It stops right here. It stops right now!”

Can we count on you to help “Build that wall! ”?

Story Posted:11/18/2017