Bullies are a fact of life in schools and life. Teachers and police can’t be everywhere. But sometimes bullies pick the wrong target. That’s when instant karma can manifest itself. In third grade, my son Christopher met his first bully. We’ll call him Michael Smith. Michael was from a family of three low performing boys, well-known to all of the teaching staff. Think of the Hurdman family in Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Michael was the youngest and the worst.
Christopher was always clean, well-dressed, and had the right answers for the teacher’s questions. Michael had none of those attributes. Furthermore, he was bigger than most third-graders, especially Christopher. He started harassing Christopher whenever the teacher wasn’t around. He pushed, shoved, and hit him at every opportunity. Christopher did what he was taught to do and told the teacher. The teacher responded appropriately. She scolded Michael, called his parents, and sent him to the principal. None of that made any difference.
So Christopher asked me what to do. We came up with a plan. As a student of military history and a fan of Star Trek, he understood perfectly what I told him to do. The next day, he waited until Michael was lined up with his class and the teacher was in full view. Then Christopher walked up to Michael and hit him in the head with a book. He then yelled “Stop picking on me!” as loud as he could.
Of course the teacher saw what happened and sent Christopher to the office. I got a phone call. The Smiths called the principal and complained. Christopher lost a couple of recesses, but for the next six years Michael left Christopher alone. Those who read Eric Stephenson’s essay about Christopher’s funeral know that this story was retold by his best friend. My son became a magnet for smart kids who didn’t quite fit in and were targets for bullies. They were safe with him.
There are readers who are no doubt appalled by what I told my son. I don’t care and I would do it again. It is a basic military principle to hit first, hit hard, and hit the enemy when he least expects it. Yes, it is not the civilized way to handle conflict. No, schools cannot encourage that kind of behavior. Yes, the principal admitted off the record that he was glad Christopher stood up for himself. No, the world can’t function if everyone takes matters into their own hands.
But as I look back on the week of 10/22/2018, I can’t help but think that there are some high profile bullies who need the same lesson Michael Smith received. Donald Trump is the first one to come to mind. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming him for the violence (letter bombs and the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre.) That is an exercise in futility even though it’s probably true. Liberals have a bad habit of spending energy on useless arguments. There’s no way to prove a connection between Trump, his rhetoric, and the actions of his faithful. Emphasis on the word prove.
What should be obvious, to his supporters as well as his detractors, is that Trump is a role model. He is also a bully by definition. Exhibit A is that he calls people names including people who can’t fight back. He has admitted to physically assaulting women. He uses his money, power and position to literally push people around. In New York, he had a long running legal battle with an elderly woman whose house he wanted. He had a similar dispute with a farmer in Scotland. He lost both battles due to the tenacity of his opponents.
But Trump is not the only role model for would-be bullies. Many on the right fit the definition. Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levine, and Alex Jones are just a few who come to mind. These people had no problem calling the Sandy Hook, Parkland, and Pennsylvania massacres false flag operations. But when a Texas church, a country and western festival, and a Colorado theater were involved, they were conspicuously silent. Colorado, Texas, and Nevada are all gun friendly states. And their people have a reputation for counter-punching.
And yes, I do know that a few outliers on the right call every gun massacre a false flag operation including Las Vegas. But the big dogs on the right know when to keep their mouths shut. Conservatives are right to point out that the assassins are careful to pick soft targets, especially in gun friendly areas. Whether they are also right that more guns would solve the problem is the subject of a different debate.
My problem is with higher profile bullies such as Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber) and Alex Jones. Mr. Wurzelbacher is quoted as saying that the dead children of Sandy Hook didn’t trump his Second Amendment rights. Besides being the statement of a bully, it is a fatuous legal argument. No part of the Bill of Rights is without restriction. Freedom of speech and press does not give one carte blanche to say anything any time. Libel, slander, and harmful speech (yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater) are all forbidden by law. Restricting who can own what guns and where those guns are allowed are also permissible.
But Alex Jones is a worse bully. He attacked the grieving parents of Noah Pozner who was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones has admitted under oath, like Rush Limbaugh, that he is an entertainer rather than a journalist. But in order to sell his survival gear and nutritional supplements, Jones stokes the fears of his audience with daily lies. One of those lies is that Sandy Hook didn’t happen and that six-year-old Noah Pozner didn’t have his brains splattered all over a classroom by a 5.56 NATO round.
As far as I’m concerned, this is bullying of the worst kind. I’m a grieving father who lost his son, so I have some idea of what Leonard Pozner has been going through. It is a horror beyond imagination to lose a child. To have your child’s life and death dismissed as a fabrication is even worse. To pile on even more injury, listeners of Alex Jones have threatened and harassed Noah’s parents so much that they have had to move repeatedly and live in hiding even now.
Leonard Pozner has responded in a civilized way. He is suing Alex Jones. Mr. Jones is lucky that legal trouble is all he is facing. He gambled that parents from Connecticut are more restrained than parents from gun friendly states. It would be a different situation if it had been my son that Alex Jones targeted. I’m not saying I would do grievous harm to Mr. Jones. But he would know how Michael Smith felt. There’s not a jury in the country that would convict me. And it wouldn’t stop me if they did.
