Bully Behavior

Bully behavior is everywhere.  It touches all walks of life and all age levels.


For instance, there is a bully on television who is currently counseling people on --  you guessed it  --  bullying others.  Just because a person hangs out a shingle and sells himself/herself as a therapist doesn't make the individual perfect.  The famous can have clay feet.


There are bullies on television who are running courtrooms.  It makes for interesting, if controversial, fodder.  However, one who holds as much power as a judge probably should tone it down a tad.


All of us remember bullies in school.  Frequently they were the biggest kids.  Sometimes they were popular with the in crowds.  Always they made the most vulnerable miserable.


Of course, the literature right now is making us aware of bullying in cyberspace.  This kind of bullying often results in teen suicide.


Even people who are seldom out in public can be bullied in their neighborhoods.  I keep running into these related to parking.  No less than three men have taken it upon themselves to tell me where I can and cannot park.  Our complex has no assigned areas.  This is published over and over in the newsletter.  It suggests that we respect the spots where others usually park their cars.  It also says to ask our visitors to park in overload areas instead of near the buildings.  My car was recently in a repair shop for two straight weeks.  People who had previously respected my spot began to use it.  Why wouldn't they?  Even I wasn't sure it was repairable until the end of the two weeks.


When I got the car back, I didn't expect to magically get the space back.  I just began parking in the least congested area near my home.  So, one day when I left for a shopping trip, a guest of a neighbor parked in the spot and stayed there for a few days.  I picked another spot that was used only by visitors.  When I left that spot yesterday, it was taken over by a guest of a neighbor.  So, I picked the next space over that has not had a permanent car for at least two or three months.


All at once two men converged on me saying "Do you want to move on down?"  Well, no I didn't.  I had a bag of library books and groceries to carry.  I had no wish to carry them very far.  Then the man who was the resident of the nearest apartment told me where I used to park  --  as though I were too stupid to know that.  He said I was parked in his space near his sidewalk.  I reminded him he hadn't had a car for some months and that he had lived here long enough to know we don't have reserved parking anyway.  He said we are supposed to respect other people's spots and he had a friend that visited.  You know!  I'm supposed to respect his empty spot for the friend he is supposed to send to the overload lots.


Oh, did I mention?  The other times my spots were taken while I was shopping were taken by friends of his who were visiting.


Needless to say, I did not move my car.  Of course, relationships in the area are strained right now, as they always are with this individual.  I'm told he even deliberately damaged a neighbor's car when said individual parked behind him several years ago.  He has frequent shouting matches with other individuals . . . frequent fires in his fire pit . . . frequent day long parties with loud music and many cars . . . and a habit of badmouthing others to his friends.


Yes, as I said there are bullies everywhere.  For the very vulnerable they can make life miserable.  Some of us just aren't as vulnerable as we appear at age seventy-six.  And some of us have an editorial blog where we can air our issues.  Some people actually even read them.


Regrettably, some of these bullies are serving as models for others.  Tsk, tsk.  I'll hate living near their kids and their nieces and nephews when they become teenagers.