Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bob Stannard of Manchester Center. It first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
Pick up a paper, any paper, and you’ll see that bullying and aggressive behavior are alive and well on planet earth.
On the cover of last Sunday’s New York Times was a story by Mark Mazzetti, Scott Shane and Alissa Rubin titled “Brutal Haqqani Crime Clan Bedevils U.S. in Afghanistan.” Here is the opening paragraph: “They are the Sopranos of the Afghanistan war, a ruthless crime family that built an empire out of kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, even trucking. They have trafficked in precious gems, stolen lumber and demanded protection money from businesses building roads and schools with American reconstruction funds.”
The next day this headline appeared: “As Gangs Move In on Mexico’s Schools, Teachers Say ‘Enough’.” Here is the opening paragraph of that story: “The message is delivered by a phone call to the office of one school, a sheaf of photocopied papers dropped off at another, a banner hung outside a third. The demand is the same: teachers have until Oct. 1 to start handing over half of their pay. If they do not, they risk their lives.”
On the front page of the same paper appeared this headline: “Up From the Ashes, a Symbol That Hate Does Not Win.” Here is the beginning of this article: “In the hours after the 2008 election of the country’s first African-American president, three white men crept up to a predominantly African-American church being built here in Springfield, blessed it corruptly with gasoline — and faded into the fresh November night.
Soon the church’s pastor, Bishop Bryant Robinson Jr., was at the crime scene’s flickering edge, weary, saddened. Moments before, he had been anticipating a new chapter in American history, and now here was one page, stuck. He didn’t need an investigation to tell him this was a racist act of arson. He is a black man with snow in his hair; he knew.
As he watched the new home for the Macedonia Church of God in Christ burn to the ground, Bishop Robinson imagined only one response: Rebuild.”
There are hundreds of websites addressing the issue of bullying and how to rid the world of aggression, but after a while one wonders if it’s nothing more than setting down one sand bag in hopes of stopping the river swollen by Irene.
Bullying appears to be dominating our world and now our country. This is nothing new. There has always been and will always be bullies who suffer terribly from insecurity and feel compelled to dominate the weak. The weak have always been and probably will always be unable to stand up to bullies and thus suffer the fate of aggressive behavior. Perhaps the only way to break the cycle is to have others stand up for those who can’t defend themselves.
The people of Afghanistan have been in conflict for centuries. They in their world and presumably most people just try desperately to live under the radar. The teachers of Mexico are crying out, but will they be heard? The members of the church burned to the ground in Atlanta found courage in their leader and pastor who was committed to rebuilding and refused to be intimidated. Bishop Robinson showed that it is possible to stand up to the cowards who will threaten, coerce, intimidate, extort and exhibit any other form of unacceptable behavior to get their way.
Now let’s look at what’s happening in Washington. There was a time when people like Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, who had diametrically opposed beliefs, would work very hard to find common ground. They did so because they believed in the UNITED States of America more than their own, personal agenda.
Since that time we are now witnessing the rise of the bully, made glamorous by TV shows like the Sopranos. I’m not down on the show. It taught us a lot. When the bullies are allowed to prevail, on any level, then we have a breakdown in freedom. When the gangs of Afghanistan win, the people lose. When the gangs of Mexico win, the people lose. When the bullies in Washington win, the people lose.
This is not hard to figure out, but figuring it out is something that we all had better come to grips with pretty soon. Times are very hard in America, and around the world. We are sitting in a world of gridlock while that same world upon which we sit is heating up like the element on your cook stove. Are we going to be able to collectively move toward solutions, or are we going to allow ourselves to be pushed around by bullies and idealogues?
Would you rather spend your lives living in fear and intimidation, because that’s the easy route? All you have to do is to acquiesce like so many people did under Hitler’s Germany. Just let the aggressive bully have his way and everything will be just fine. History has shown that this is rarely the case.
You, on the other hand, are lucky. For now, anyway, you live in a free country and get to choose the world in which you live. Choose carefully.
