No Bullying Allowed!

 In honor of anti bulling month I thought I would wright about bullying.  I have to say it is about time that some entities in society are starting to acknowledge bullying does affect people in negative ways. But they need to not only realize that bullying happens in the school system and in cyberspace, but it can also be happening at home by siblings or parents or out in the work place.  Yes, an adult can be a bully.  Pretty much it can happen any time, any where that another person or group intends to belittle you or cause harm in some way, usually over a period of time.
In the past no one really cared about kids being bullied.  It wasn't until kids started going into the schools killing their classmates or killing themselves did anyone really start to care.  It was always, kids will be kids.  But now people are starting to realize that it just might not be the video games screwing these kids up but the people around them that are terrorizing them that are driving them to the brink of desperation to do what they have done.
Now do I feel that the school system or society is doing enough to stop bullying?  No.  Do I feel like it is anything more than lip service?  No.  Do I feel like the work place is doing anything to stop harassment?  No.  Do I feel like they are doing anything more than lip service there?  No.  Each place has laws and procedures set up in place to help the individual that that is being bullied or harassed, but what happens to the person that files the complaint?  This is why individuals don't come forward.
Now Mommyd is going to talk from experience.  When I was in school, I was bullied, but at times I also did the bulling.  I was picked on for various reasons.  I came form a poor family, so I never had nice clothes, my mom would cut my bangs, so you can imagine what my hair looked like.  I had learning disabilities, I was very shy, I was over weight, tallest girl in my class, and so on.  This gave the other kids lots of reasons to make fun of me and to pick on me.  Also be cause I was an LD kids, the teachers did not want me in their class and they definitely let me know it on a daily basis.   My siblings also picked on my constantly when I was at home.  I don't know how many times I pulled around the yard by my pigtails or locked in the hayloft with snakes by my siblings.  Because of the constant torment that I received on a daily basis, I did not feel very good about myself nor did I feel very good about other people.  I do believe that this is why I would be mean to my teachers.  Very seldom was I mean or bully the other students at school, but I definitely did bully my teachers.      For some reason it made me feel better to get back at the teachers and the administration for treating me so badly all those years and not protecting me.  And it let them know how it felt to be bullied back.  By the time I had gotten into high school I started to get smarter about how to torment my bullier.
I got together other outcasts girls and had them practice with me and we went out for cheer leading, and made it on the cheer leading team which knocked several of the popular girls off the squad.  I got several of the nerdy boys to go out for shop promising them that I would do their project if they would pass the book work for me just so the nerds and a girl could be in shop.  This is something that had never happened at our school before.  When I got into college, I became a protector of sorts of those who were picked on.  For instance, in the dorms, we had an Asian girl who these who these six black girls picked on relentlessly.  One of the black girls roomed with this Asian girls and made her life a living hell.  One day I just could not take it any more, so I backed the girls down a hall with no escape.  I gave the girls three choices.  They could either leave the Asian girl alone for now on, get their ass kicked by the crazy white chick or they could try and kick the crazy white chicks ass the choice was up to them.  Luckily for my sake I scared them just enough to so that they didn't want to take me on that day, but the next day I ended up having to take them on in the dorm TV room because they had not quit leaving the Asian girl alone and I wanted them to know I meant business.  Now I don't have any skills at fighting, but I did have allot of experience at defending myself while getting whooped by my siblings and I have experience wrestling hogs.  Oh ya, did I mention I was one of the top weight lifters in my high school.  Needless to say with in a few minutes they were apologizing to the Asian girl and she did not have any problems with them again the rest of her time at college.  Now that I am in the workforce, I find that the bullying makes me more mad  and more unjust than it was in school.  because if you try and do something about it you know that you will probably loose your job and the chances of you getting another job are slim.  So in this case you really have to bite your toung and bear it and find the little ways to make the bully or bullies look bad.  The thing with work is that unless you have some type of power there you are dispensable and you can be gotten rid of at any time so you have to be very discrete with pay backs.
Now Mommyd isn't encouraging people to fight or encouraging people to take revenge, but am saying for the people that are being picked on to start to stand up for your self in some way without going overboard and letting it get to the point to where you snap and go postal on someone.  So when someone calls you ugly say back to them "Thank you, my ex used to always call me Un-usualy Gorgas and Lavishly Yummy.
Always have a come back. And if it comes to fighting, try to out smart them, but if they throw the first punch, make mommyd proud.  Also remember, there are others, that are getting picked on, make them your friends and have each others backs.