There is no doubt that bullying has become a serious problem in this country and it's not only with kids. Adult bullying has also become a problem.
That said, I couldn't help but compare how different things are today to when I was a kid in grade school.
In the news is the story of a young boy who was stabbed with a pencil, by another boy, in school after they got into an argument. While the school did take disciplinarian action against the child who did the stabbing, the mother of the child who was stabbed says that was not enough. In her words, "how dare he touch my child." She called the cops. Now we have a gigantic investigation and local news coverage, of the incident, has become national coverage of the incident and, for all I know international. Of course, the child who was stabbed had to see the doctor.
Flashback 60 some years. Bobby Lonsberry stabbed me with a pencil at school after we got into an argument. It was 7th or 8th grade. I've forgotten which. I still have the lead embedded, just under the skin, on my wrist and you can plainly see it if you'd like to have a look.
The teacher yelled at us and told us to sit down in our seats. We did. He, then, looked at the wound, put a bit of alcohol on it and said, "It will be alright." And it was.
By the end of the day Buddy Lonsberry and I were friends again.
I showed it to Mother when I got home. She said, "It will be alright", and it was.
There was no mention of calling the cops. No mention of going to the doctor. I can only remember going to the doctor once when I was a kid. The only other times I saw a doctor was when I was sick with the flu or a cold or the measles and he came to the house.
And, of course, there was no such thing as a plethora of news channels trying to find stories to fill up 24 hours a day and trying to make the stories as outrageous as possible to capture more viewers to see more commercials to make more money which is what the news channels are all about in the first place....MONEY.
And, as for cops? I don't remember ever seeing a cop when we were kids. We didn't have much need for cops. We didn't even lock the doors when we left the house. Nobody thought about someone coming in and stealing something.
I don't know who's right or whose wrong when I see news stories like this. I just know that the news story doesn't have all the facts and what they DO have is probably exaggerated just a tiny bit. How do I know that? I spent 35 years in broadcasting. That's how I know that. That's longer than most of the pretty faces with the great hair behind the news desks have been on this planet.
I've read enough books on memory to know that what we remember is not what really happened....no matter how sure we are. It's a highly "colored" version of what happened based to other beliefs and biases you may have aquired over your lifetime. And, the passage of time, itself, changes the stories of what you really believe you remember.
So I guess I can't judge whether things are better today than they were 70 years ago. I can only say, when I see the world as it is today, that I'm glad I was born and grew up 70 years ago. I wouldn't trade my life for the life of a 20 year old, today, for all the money in the world. And, you know what? They wouldn't trade with me.
That's life. And then you're dead.
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