I’ve read much on the heroics of confronting bulliess recently, that too has a dark side…

[zeemike]

54. And you can kill people with words too

Keep hounding them until they kill themselves
Back in those days....I am talking about the 50s now....they let kids work things like that out themselves....and by the way back then most kids had a 22 rifle...and it was nothing to see a 9 or 10 year old walking down the street carrying one.....on the way to the woods.
But this was small town America in the 50s...And I never heard of a kid being killed in a fight or with a gun...perhaps because they did have the opportunity to work thing out when they were young.
It really is a much meaner world today...even in small town America.
But I got in very few fights in school...because they knew I would fight...when we moved to a bigger town my folks sent me to Catholic school with predominantly Irish Americans...and my first day there a gang of boys approached me and said they would beat me up after school.....and sure enough they were there when school was out...and the ring leader and I wrestled on the ground for a few seconds and then got up and walked home together...they really did not want to fight they just wanted to see if I would....and that guy became my best friend.

I tried my hand at bulling myself once....in class when we were supposed to be studying I kept pulling the pigtail of the girl in front of me...she got tired of it and stood up turned around and smacked me right across the face...the whole class and the teacher were all silent....she sat back down and I never tried that one again....the Nun who was the teacher never said a word.

I tell you it is a much meaner world today.