primitives get bullied

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002677696

Oh my.

MarianJack (6,260 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

I'm straight and I was bullied in grade school.

To give you a little background, my father took off in the Spring of 1962 a couple of months before my 7th birthday. I was in the hospital at the time having just had my tonsils taken out. No great shakes normally, but my sister and I were severe bleeders. When my sister had hers out around 1950, she damn near bled to death. The only reason I didn't was because my parents warned the doctors.

While I was in the hospital, my father told my mother that he was going on a retreat, flew down to Alabama for a quickie divorce, flew out to LA and was married to my step-mother before my mother even knew that she was divorced. Given the terms of his Alabama divorce, my father was technically a bigamist and my mom could have put his ass in jail whenever she pleased. Since this was the early 60s, a "deadbeat dad" was called an "up & coming take no prisoners young business executive".

In 1962, Irish Catholics DID NOT get divorces. Any divorced woman was automatically considered to be a "hot to trot hoochie mama".

I tell you this to set up what happened to me. When I was in Catholic schools, nuns would occasionally make the snide remarks that for the longest time I didn't understand. From about 4th grade I was called names (including some hateful homophobic terms that we all know and that I won't repeat). I had some verbal fights and arguments because I would always talk back. The worst offender was an asshole in my 5th grade class named "clint" (fictional name, changed to protect the shit head that I haven't seen since 1970).

"clint" liked to constantly needle and nag me about my "dead father" & "slut mother". At recesses and lunch and on the way to and from school, he and his cronies were on me constantly! There were only a few sporadic physical scuffles, but I was always being verbally badgered and tortured. I had a level of hatred in my heart that no child should have ever had.

The blow up came during this awful tradition that Catholic schools had at the time called the May Procession. We were all lined up by size and side by side. As we were walking the route to the church, "clint" was behind me over my right shoulder. The SOB wouldn't stop badgering me about, you guessed it, my "dead father" & "slut mother". My mother's boyfriend took a photo as we were walking by. The look on my face was a look that I can only get when I am far and away beyond rage. My mother later told me that she almost crossed over to take me out of line then and there because she knew I was close to blowing.

Now I don't claim to be a particularly unique person, but what happened next is probably something very rare in the unstoried lore of the May Procession. I finally exploded going up the center aisle of the church. While there were 2000+ school children singing "Ave Maria", I turned around, jumped on "clint" and started to beat the living shit out of him. While the nuns were running toward be like a troop of black robed rambos, I was punching "clint's" face and banging his empty of anything but shit head against the side of the pew while calling him a "M***er F***er" at the top of my lungs.

The nuns, I'm sure with good reason, wanted to throw my ass out of the school. In their view, "clint" was a poor innocent victim who was going to get a totally free pass.

They didn't count on my mother. Believe me, you would never have wanted to have my ass after she got through with it that day, but she threatened to sue the school, the parish and the archdiocese if I was expelled and poor little "clint" got a pass after tormenting me for almost 2 school years. There was a meeting with the mother superior, the pastor, my mother and "clint's" parents. According to her, they were trying to browbeat and intimidate my mother into backing down. Eventually there was a compromise reached where it was agreed that we wouldn't be in the same class again and we were both under pain of expulsion if we associated at all for the rest of the time we were in school. For me, there was no loss in that. I always considered "clint" to be an asshole. I didn't care what his opinion of me was. My mother frequently told me, almost until the day she died, that I have a way of ignoring people that will make them feel as if they're being physically assaulted. I first learned how to do that as I completely ignored his very existence and drove him crazy.

I am not advocating violence here. I have respected my wife's wishes, even though I don't always agree with them, that I not teach our son to defend himself. It is a fact however, that once the bullies in my school knew that I was willing to knock their f***ing teeth in, they found a way to live with my the reality of my single parent family.

I wonder if some of the gay bashing bully assholes would have badgered some of these poor young gay people into suicide if even some of those children had broken the noses of their tormentors.

I do know this. When I see romney's phoniness about his conduct in high school, I see the same detestable type of human being as good ol' "clint". This is a man who seriously NEVER needs to be in any position of power.

If he was able to terrorize a weaker person with a pair of scissors and a posse of thugs, what the hell would he be capable of with the power to give the order to drop the bomb and the armed forces under his command?

I shudder.

"The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them" Maya Angelou.

I say again, you've shown me what you are, Mr. romney.

I say again, I believe you.

I say again, no thank you.

The campfire's well worth taking out the boat and going over to Skins's island to observe; there's plenty of bullying tales at it.

Now, franksolich has a stupid question, or what might seem a stupid question.  But I really don't know.

I never went to a parochial school, as such were rare, if at all, in the sparsely-populated areas of Nebraska where I grew up.

My only contact with nuns was during the summer, when a couple of kind sisters came up from Grand Island to instruct us on religious matters for about two weeks during each summer.  At the time, there were still nuns who served as nurses in some hospitals, but my contacts with them were ephemeral.

I'm bored to death hearing tales of "mean" nuns teaching in school, not to mention highly skeptical of such tales.  I've heard hundreds of such tales; one would think that sadism and cruelty was a requirement for nuns to be teachers.

All of the nuns franksolich has ever encountered in his life have been paragons of mercy, compassion, kindness, understanding, gentleness.  About the only criticism one could possibly lay against a couple of them was that they had some, uh, sparse facial hair on their chins.

I think the primitives are lying.

[Ballygrl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002677696
I never went to a parochial school, as such were rare, if at all, in the sparsely-populated areas of Nebraska where I grew up.

My only contact with nuns was during the summer, when a couple of kind sisters came up from Grand Island to instruct us on religious matters for about two weeks during each summer.  At the time, there were still nuns who served as nurses in some hospitals, but my contacts with them were ephemeral.

I'm bored to death hearing tales of "mean" nuns teaching in school, not to mention highly skeptical of such tales.  I've heard hundreds of such tales; one would think that sadism and cruelty was a requirement for nuns to be teachers.

All of the nuns franksolich has ever encountered in his life have been paragons of mercy, compassion, kindness, understanding, gentleness.  About the only criticism one could possibly lay against a couple of them was that they had some, uh, sparse facial hair on their chins.

I think the primitives are lying.

Most of my Family went to Catholic School including me, my Dad had his head bashed against the Blackboard by the Brothers, my Mom and Aunts and Uncles were smacked by the Nuns a lot. I'm of a different generation and I was even smacked in the face by a Nun, and other kids were also in my class, they were hit by Nuns and Lay Teachers. It seemed to stop after 4th grade though, no idea if the rules changed or what.

Like everywhere else, there are crazy people, and yes there were some crazy Nuns, the 1 who smacked me could be called a nutcase, she eventually left the Sisterhood, but overall Nuns are very nice, you're always going to have a few bad with the good. The thing though is this, my Dad, my Mom, my Aunts, my Cousins, Friends and myself? we don't steal, we don't commit crimes, and while that can be traced back to our upbringings, I also attribute that to my Catholic education, and that things like guilt aren't always a bad thing.

If you get a chance, there's a movie that came out in the 1980's called Heaven Help Us, it starred Kevin Dillon, Patrick Dempsey and some others people will know, when I saw that movie I was like woah!!!!!! the things my Parents talked about were in that movie and some things I saw myself were in that movie, but of course it was just 1 Brother who was sadistic and a couple of others who were strict. If you're a bitter person and or a leftist you'd walk away from that movie a bitter person towards humanity and Religion, I didn't at all though, it was what it was, and many people cite their Catholic education with making them the people they are today, and they don't have the bitterness, heck, when I'm with people I went to school with or we talk online, we laugh about it.

BTW, I was bullied all through 6th grade, I was the new person, I took it, then 7th grade started and the bullying began again, I got up from my desk and beat the girl up in the classroom, problem solved.

[67 Rover]

2000+ school children and at least one parent with each 4000+ people in a Catholic school? People were not suing frivolously in the 70's the way they are today.

0 bongs. I call BS again. 

The only thing I believe from this screed is that his mother "chose" poorly.

[Doubleplusungood]

In my day you dealt with your bully by fighting him. Win or lose he would think twice about bullying you again if he knew he would have to throw down for doing it.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

While there were 2000+ school children singing "Ave Maria",

  Yeah ok....Where did you go to parochial school numb nuts? The Vatican? No way in hell can you get that many kids with their parents and more than likely grandparents into any Catholic Church anywhere in the world outside of maybe St.Peters Square in front of the Basilica and even then!

[jukin]

That pegs the "Pant Load" meter.