When I was a kid we played ice hockey after school, on a pond near where I grew up in Michigan. The older kids played at one end, and the younger ones played at the other. My first hockey skates were hand me downs (my mother sprayed them with Lysol before I could use them), from an older guy in the neighborhood who was a friend, and who taught me how to skate on the pond, and adjoining canals by taking a broken branch, holding it behind him, and telling me to hold on to the other end, as he took me for a ride that strengthened my ankles and other muscles, taught me balance, and was (including a few wipe outs) one of the many great memories I have of being a kid!
We all knew when the sun was setting. In the holiday season it would be early, and we all packed it in for the day, went home to our families to eat dinner, do our homework, and then hit the hey.
Among the older kids there was a bully. He used to like to pick on me because I was a sort of book worm, and he came from a real blue collar type family. I assumed then that there was more to it than that. I think he was probably taught the violence he practiced in his school and social life at home, and I used to feel bad for him, but he was a bully non the less, and if he and I were among the last to leave the pond area, I used to scramble to keep clear of the guy, because he would come up to me and plant a good one right in my gut, then walk away, just for fun. Later, when I learned to defend myself, I always stuck up for the little guys, the academics, the nerds, and those who were a little different, because I had been there.
The very worst thing that happened when I was in K-12, was someone getting a black eye, a bloody nose, or a fat lip, and in all honesty, these incidents were very rare. I can count on half of one hand all the times that I, and any of my friends ever got into a real fist fight with anyone in all the years I was growing up (that‘s all of us combined, for me it was only once).
In high school, we all were dumped by a gal here and there, and we all were equally guilty of being insensitive to some of the girls we dated. We were growing, we were learning, and right or wrong (I know I was wrong a few times), that is how the processes worked, and it made us better, and more sensitive to each other and our fellow man/woman in the long run.
In college, where I lived off campus, there were a few assaults that occurred in the parking lots after dark. We all put together a group that would walk the females to their cars if we were studying late. It worked very well, and we all made good friends out of this effort to help each other out.
Today’s shooting at Virginia Tech is something out of a nightmare, or a bad movie. It just shouldn’t happen in real life. My heart goes out to the families of the victims, and to the victims themselves; God bless.
My old bully never killed anyone. Nor did anyone else I ever knew in school, but some do such things today, and without making our campuses prison like settings, we must address this problem, or it is bound to happen again, and again.
More on this later, as I think much of the original reaction by university officials will be, and should be under scrutiny.
"and without making our campuses prison like settings, we must address this problem"....
I've got an idea...we should have the Government declare campuses "Gun Free Zones"....oh....wait.
On the other hand, we could follow the 2nd amendment and allow law-abiding citizens to protect themselves with firearms. I know, not very "nanny state"...but it just might work!
Posted by: Andy Swan | April 16, 2007 at 11:53 PM