I couldn’t have had better parents. But they weren’t perfect. They were so against fighting it even meant not defending myself. By the third grade, kids learned I wouldn’t fight back, so I became the punching bag.
Going home with a black eye, Mom would remind me that we are to always turn the other cheek. I would often hear that scripture (Luke 6:29), those about vengeance (like Romans 12:17-21) or giving peaceful answers (Proverbs 15:1).
I tried to do all that. In the 4th grade, I changed schools. I thought a new school would be better. It was worse. I went back to my first school for 5th and 6th grades.
When I got back it was as if my tormentors had grown two years older and I had stalled. The bullying got worse.
They developed a nickname for me. It derived from my name (Chinn) and being too chicken to fight. It started off as “Chinnpeck”, then became “Henpeck.”
Middle School was worse.
My parents also experienced the great depression. The effects of them going through that, stayed with many of the depression era their whole lives.
So, Mom had me look for the best used pencils, notebooks and 3-ring binders in the trashcans at the end of each school year. Those would be ideal for me to start the next year with.
Having many older cousins in our big family, my clothes were often hand-me-downs. I entered the 7th grade with scuffed up dress shoes handed down to me by Grandpa. My pants were too short and kids heckled, “where’s the flood?”
I recall riding my bicycle home from school with a 7th grade bully running along beside me punching me in the head, as I cried and tried to keep from wrecking.
By the 8th grade I’d had it. As a bully walked across in front of my desk one day, the teacher looked away and he slapped me upside the face. I threw my desk over on him, jumped into a fighting stance and yelled at him to fight.
He went into a posture of surprised surrender, while some girl said, “how cruel.”
Think About it
American law-enforcement has taken too much. Israel has had enough. The U.S. is done with the Houthi rebels.
Sometimes the only option left is to fight back. But there will always be some clown exclaiming, “how cruel.”
Comments