Its been a long while (anyway you measure "while") since I went to school. So the memories left have become the more important ones. Getting hurt at recess, the teachers that standout, good and bad, and the other "ingrained in my memory" incidents that occurred in that brief period of my life. One thing I do remember are the bullies; and mind you bullies were not making national news. I often wonder what changed that bullies and bully-ing have become national spot lights. I remember my mom telling me,specifically what boys I was Not allowed to 'hang' with. Generally speaking, these were the known bullies of the local neighborhood. There were times I did not listen to mom, sometimes all went well, others, well these were the times I did get in trouble. The reason I am writing this post is a)I have nothing better to do, and b) I hear news reports featuring bullies. Now, I'm intelligent but not a scholar; hearing stories of "bullies" causing suicide. Peh....leaz.... Seems to me there are enough issues in this subject to create an entire catalog. If one person were to be held responsible for suicide it would in my book be the victim. Obviously there is more behind this story than just the bully be cruel. My mom and dad always said, the bully is just trying to be tough; ignore, walk away, report, do what needs to be done, but don't start a fight. I am just an average guy, well, a bit thin, so I never really wanted to be in a fight. Ignore and walk away was usually my defense. I guess some would refer to that as cowering down; making me the coward at first look. I didn't see it that way; I had enough respect for myself to see it as avoiding a fight. Why give the bully what he is looking for. Like one time at a new high school I attended, this one guy, quite a bit bigger then I told me I was "goofy" so I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Yuk yuk yuk" (you do remember Goofy) walked away. Never heard from him again.
I guess this post was spawned from seeing in the "suggested reading" panel on my blog, a blog titled "how to raise kids to not be bullies". I was thinking, if this is a subject that requires research we are in deeper trouble than I thought.
of coffee. Never the less... we order, move along (sorta busy, 3-4 cars in front and countless behind). Now I am just the spectator here, passenger, along for the ride; beyond the "pay it forward" experience a very funny thing occurred. Driving back home she turns to me and says (at a traffic light of course) "How offended were you by that cup in your hands". (crash of the cymbal) 
