HugeFanOfBadReligion wrote:Also, wibberley, I should add that while you seem to be okay with the hypothetical situation of your child being arrested for murder if it was for the purpose stopping bullies, you should take note that the bullies would likely be significantly worse in a juvenile detention centre and your child would have no way to stop those bullies. It wouldn't make the situation better for anyone, so your approval of children killing their bullies doesn't solve anything.
When I was a kid living in a small railroad town up in Northern Minnesota, my neighborhood was like living on Skid Row.
One day, I was out riding on my bicycle and as I was crossing the railroad track on the way home, I was ambushed by a couple of kids from my neighborhood, a larger kid about my age, and his sister who was about three years older and rather large for her age.
They both jumped me, and knocked me off of my bicycle and held me down to the railroad track. My neck was on one of the rails.
Then a train was approaching, but they both continued to hold me down on the track, and when the train was about a hundred feet away, then they decided to let go, get up and ran off, and I wasn't able to get up fast enough so I just simply rolled over to get off the track and I laid there on the ground on my back about a foot or so away from the railroad track as the train thundered by.
I was too scared to attempt getting back on up my feet, so I just laid there on the ground next to the track and it took over 5 minutes for the train to pass. It seemed like forever. I was in shock, just laying there, and seeing all those freight cars rumbling by had an almost hypnotic effect on me. The train had the usual three locomotives, about a hundred cars which is typical of trains that passed through that town, and then, as the red caboose went by, about a few minutes later I was able to get back up on my feet again.
I picked up my bicycle but I felt too weak and wobbly to get on it to ride, so I walked my bicycle home, and when I got home I collapsed on the living room floor.
When I told my mother what happened she looked up the parents' name in the phone book and called the parents of the two kids who had ambushed me. They lived in the same neighborhood. The parents refused to listen and hung up.
Then my mother called the cops. Being a very small town, we had a sheriff and only one cop. The cop showed up at our home and wrote down our complaint, but he said that nothing could be done because they were juveniles and we can only file a complaint against the parents.
We filed the complaint but no action was taken. They wouldn't do jack shit!!!
OK, now here is a rather interesting fact concerning the town's only cop.
He was once a cop in St. Cloud Minnesota and he was fired from the police force after he had beaten and rape a 12 year old girl. I don't know if he ever did any time for it. He should have. Actually, I believe in the death penalty for molesting a child.
But what is amazing was that he was able to get a job as a cop in my home town despite his criminal record. It was a sleazy little town with a lot of dirty secrets.
Yeah, that little town was like something out of a Steven King novel.
Anyway . . . . .
About a couple months later, I was out walking around and on the way home I noticed something like a metal rod laying in a drainage ditch. I picked it up and I had no idea what it was. It was just a metal rod about a quarter-inch diameter, about 3 feet long, it had a blue wooden handle on one end and it was bent at a 90 degree angle on the other end with a sharp point on it.
So, I decided to take it home, and then I was confronted by the older sister who had ambushed me along with her brother a couple of months earlier. She tried to take the metal rod away from me, but instead, I swung it as hard as I could and struck her on the side of the head with it. She was damn lucky that I didn't put out one of her eyes. Blood ran down the side of her head and she ran home crying and screaming.
Then I came home with the metal rod, and gave it to my mother and told her what happened.
Oddly enough nothing ever happened after that incident. I actually got away with it. If that sharp point had penetrated her skull, it might have killed her, so she was damn lucky. As I had mentioned before, she was a few years older than I was, and much bigger, rather large for her age, and she liked to bully the other kids around in my neighborhood.
But after the incident when I struck her on the side of the head with the metal rod, she never bothered me ever again, and she even stopped bullying the other kids around in my neighborhood.
A few years later, when I was in the 7th grade, one afternoon, we had a fire at home. The house we lived in was a 2 story house over a century old. My neighborhood had a lot of old 2 and 3 story houses dating back to The Civil War. I had heard rumors going around the school that my home had burned down, and then, the kid who had ambushed me along with his big sister, he approached me and asked me if I heard about my home burning down. He then said that after the fire was put out they took out two bodies, and he started laughing, like it was really funny.
Of course, I have always known that he was a liar as well as a bully, so I refused to believe him. Then while I was in class, someone came from the principals office and informed the teacher that I should go to the principals office. When I was at the principals office, I was informed that there had been a fire at my home, and I immediately asked if my parents were OK. I was relieved when the principal said that my mother was coming to take me out of school for the rest of the day.
My mother came for all three of us, myself, my younger brother, and my sister, and we went to eat in a cafe. There were some bedrooms upstairs, so it was a combination cafe and hotel. We moved in and rented a couple of rooms upstairs until we could find another house. This was back in 1965, I was 13 years old.
The fire was caused by an electrical short. As I had mentioned before, the house was over a century old, and when we had bought the house, it had those old fashioned light switches that you turn, which we replaced with new light switches. So, the electrical wiring was very old, dating back to the years when houses were just beginning to have electricity installed. Apparently, the old wiring within the walls had shorted out in the stair well.
After we had moved into the hotel, then I was back in school again.
Then one day, I was sitting in the school cafeteria having lunch. That day, I was having a nice big bowl of Chili Concarnie. Now, while the quality of education in that school really sucked, we did have the best damn cook, a great big fat German lady who was really nice. I liked her very much, and when eating in the school cafeteria I would come back for seconds and even thirds. That was when I started gaining a lot of weight, so I was 13 years old when I was beginning to get fat, and I actually liked it!
Anyway, as I was having my lunch, the kid who had ambushed me with his older sister, he sat across the table from me. He took a bite out his sandwich and then he dipped his sandwich into my steaming hot bowl of Chili Concarnie.
It really grossed me out, because when he smiled, he had a mouth full of rotten teeth and really bad breath. No way was I going to eat my Chili Concarnie after he took a sandwich that had been in his dirty mouth and dipped into my soup.
So, I got really pissed off, and I picked up my steaming hot bowl of Chili Concarnie, and turned it up-side-down on top of his head! It scalded him, and he started screaming.
Then I said . . .
"Yeah! Really hot, isn't it! Almost as hot as fire I dare say! Tell me, heard any more good fire jokes lately? Come on! Tell me another one of your fire jokes! I'm just dying to hear a really good fire joke! Come on! I wanna hear you holler . . . . . FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!"
He got up and ran off across the cafeteria screaming out in pain!
Well, I got sent home from school that day. Of course I got suspended from school.
This was one incident that was not sports related, but one in which I got even with a bully. I'll just bet that he didn't go around telling any more fire jokes after that day.
Anyway. . .
We stayed in the hotel for about a month, then we bought a 21 foot long travel trailer, a brand new Trailblazer from a lot in Duluth Minnesota.
We lived in the trailer until April of 1965, and then we moved down to Truth Or Consequence New Mexico. We had been planing to Move to New Mexico for over a year anyway, because my mother had asthma and every winter she would get sick and have to spend a few days in the hospital, so we moved down to New Mexico where the climate would be much better for my mother's health.
After we moved to New Mexico, we sold the Trailblazer and bought a new mobile home for about $4,000 dollars, a 12 x 50 foot Rembrandt. This was back when 12 foot wide trailers first came out.
I like to believe that my mother lived 20 years longer than she would have if we had stayed up in Minnesota, so, my mother was much better after we moved down to New Mexico, and the following year, I was back in school again.
Anyway . . . .
Sometimes when dealing with bullies, one may have to take some drastic measures.
I had struck one bully on the side of the head with a metal rod, and another bully I had turned a scalding hot bowl of soup up-side-down on top of his head.
So, I did get some revenge before moving out of the dirty little town up in Minnesota.
You know, on Star Trek, there is on old Klingon saying . . .
Revenge is a dish that is best served cold!
Well, I prefer to serve it up steaming hot!!!
