Here a bully, there a bully, everywhere a bully, bully...

Blurb for today...

The better we feel about ourselves, the fewer times we have to knock somebody else down to feel tall.

Odetta

I don't like bullies. Having had the misfortune of growing up with a bully for a father, I have a real "thing" about them now. I don't like people who, because of their own imperfections and flaws, feel the need to level their playing field by tryng to bring people down to their degree of insecurity. The ones who go through life trying to intimidate and subdue anyone who, for whatever reasons, they perceive to have more or be more than they.

These paragons of delusory perfection come in all shapes, sizes, and gender. They're not real hard to recognize. They're the ones who get some kind of warped sense of superiority by relentlessy chipping away at someone else's self esteem. Their weapons of choice are ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and most effective of all, rejection. Their targets are almost always the weaker, more vulnerable of our species, or even worse, the powerless children. The little ones who, unable to defend themselves, are instilled with a fear and uncertainty that only the angry displeasure of a bully can bring. By the time they reach adulthood, what little confidence they have left is beat up and damaged.

I have no tolerance and precious little respect for bullies who refuse to acknowledge that that's what they are. When you make someone cry, it means you've hurt them. When you continue to make someone hurt, it means you're fully aware of what you're doing. How can you not know that you're damaging someone when you attack with harsh words and actions? When you deliberately make someone cry or diminish them as a human being, how can you not know? And how can you ever begin to attempt to defend that kind of mean?

I don't like bullies and I like even less the claims of ignorance they adopt to justify being one.