I heard recently about a couple of bullies at a sports camp. When it was exposed that they were bullying, and it was confirmed, these two were packed up and waited on the curb outside of the camp for their parents to pick them up. I was so impressed that the administration of that camp took that stance and would not tolerate what they had done.
I wish someone would do that to our president.
He's a bully, plain and simple.
I picked up on it the minute he started running for president. He was not nice, he didn't sugar-coat anything and he was mean, saying things that had no place in our society. I thought, oh these other Republicans running against him will shut him down in a heartbeat.
They didn't. Instead they left that playground and moved to another one.
When he won the nomination I thought, well, as much as I don't like Hillary Clinton, she will take him down. And she didn't. She was playing by the playground rules, a little aggressively, but she was playing by the rules that had worked for her for years. Cudos to her for not leaving the playground.
Honestly, I could see why he won the election. He was saying the right thing to the right people, whether he meant it or not. For too long, the people from middle America were tired of being nice. They were tired of having to be politically correct. Here was a guy who was saying what we wanted to hear and he wasn't being nice and he wasn't apologizing for not being nice. He was calling it as he saw it, or as his advisors told him we wanted to hear and he was having a good time being cheered up one side and down the other. It didn't matter to these Americans that he was vulgar or inappropriate or mean, we could look the other way, because he was saying what we wanted to hear. The parent in us didn't like the bullying one bit but there were enough people who felt that they had been bullied by their government for long enough and now was the time to give them what they deserved.
But, as a parent of children that have been bullied, as a parent who had been bullied when I was in middle school, I think it's time to pack him up and put him out on the curb.
I know, sticks and stones will break your bones but words cannot hurt you. I'm reminded of the time that my daughter said "words hurt Mom".
Now, personally, I'm appalled that anyone is letting this man talk to them this way. And I'm appalled that they are getting back at him and bullying back. That's not what I want to teach my children.
I want to teach my children that bullying is wrong, if it's a middle schooler doing it or the president of the United States.
I want to teach my children to remove the bully from the playground. Go to a person in authority, tell them what happened, and demand they do something about it.
As a parent I would want the bully to be shown that you get more with honey than vinegar. I would want to love them through it. I'd say somebody needs a hug and to be shown how to act.
I would love to get someone like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, both parents, and have them go to our president and tell him that he has to stop this behavior. But the only people that can remove him from the playground is the American people. Personally, I think we all need to unfollow the man on Twitter. That would be a good start. But we have got to quit encouraging him to do more of the same. We have to stand up and be an adult here. Now.
All along Jimmy has said that this whole administration was turning into a reality TV show. What if we all quit watching? What if we didn't care what he had to say? What if we forced him to grow up? It would take some responsible behavior. We wouldn't be able to peek. We wouldn't be able to sneak and see what he's tweeting about today. We would have to turn off all of those talk TV news programs, even talk radio. Are we responsible enough to shove him to the curb? I think that's something we need to at least consider. Because as long as someone is watching and reporting he's going to keep bullying.
We have to be the adults here.
Faith+Farm+Family
Somewhere to Build Me . . .
