The Old School guide for how to deal with schoolyard bullies

You may have heard about the 11 yr. old boy from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands who took his own life because he was taunted and bullied, incessantly, as a new student at Dunaire Elementary School in Dekalb County (Atlanta), Georgia.

I have two sons. The eldest is 10 1/2 and his younger brother is 5. If I ever find out that either of them are being bullied I will employ the following sequence:

1) I will ask them to refer the matter to a teacher or administrator,

2) if it persists, "I" will demand that the administration resolve it,

3) if it persists, I will ask my son if they think they can "beat up" the kid(s),

if so, they have permission to pummel the bully;

if not, I will head over to the school, have my child point out the bully, and I will have a discussion with the bully - the discussion will be brief and it will go something like this:

"...you are prohibited from speaking to my child, referring to my child or touching my child - if my child comes home and tells me otherwise there will be dire circumstances - if you don't know what dire circumstances are then ask your parent(s)..."

then I will give the child my business card and have them have their parent(s) contact me immediately - the discussion I will have with the parent(s) will be brief and it will go something like this:

"...your child is prohibited from speaking to my child, referring to my child or touching my child - if my child comes home and tells me otherwise there will be dire circumstances - if you don't know what dire circumstances are then ask your parent(s)..."

4) if none of that works - i will slap the living daylights out of the bully and kick the living dog squeeze out of his parent(s) and their neighbors and their cousins and their in-laws and their grandparents and their grandchildren and their pit bulls and their rottweilers or anyone or anything else who wants to jump in

win, lose or draw no one will torment my children and get away with it

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p.s. some of this is slightly exaggerated - I do not advocate physical violence other than for self-defense - nor do I condone adults striking children other than their own for purposes other than punishment and even in the case of punishment, striking children should be done responsibly and with the child's parent's permission - nonetheless, bullying is pervasive and needs to be nipped in the bud and an old school dude like myself won't hesitate to take matters into my own hands, albeit responsibly

The object in the mirror is closer than it appears

For a golf geek such as myself there is nothing better than waking up early Saturday and Sunday morning to live coverage of the European PGA Tour on The Golf Channel.

Renton Laidlaw's familiar voice and hilarious quips are a major part of that experience and he will be sadly missed when he steps aside someday.

Granted, it's not the PGA Tour (American) but it's pro golf at its finest, nonetheless.

Sergio Garcia recently inferred that the European Tour is "catching up" with its American counterpart, but it's my contention that it already has.

Just examine the list of winners of golf's four major tournaments for the past 5 or 6 years.

For what do we owe this phenomenon?

PGA tour players are not as hungry. They're actually a little spoiled.

PGA tour players are waited on hand and foot.

They always play in perfect or near perfect weather on immaculately groomed courses.

Tiger's presence has vaulted purses into the stratosphere such that PGA Tour players who don't even finish high enough on the money list to keep their playing privileges still earn over a million dollars per season in prize money.

PGA Tour players don't need passports, VISA's or immunizations for Yellow Fever and Hepatitis.

PGA Tour players have foul weather gear in their bags at all times but their's collects dust.

Most PGA Tour players leave the country only during the off-season when they are on vacation.

European PGA Tour players, however, are more like us.

They carry their own bags and rent their own cars for the week.

They play on greens that are akin to those at that one muni in your town that actually has a competent greenskeeper with an appropriate budget and not the fabled East Lake Golf Club.

Their purses are not half as big as those stateside.

And to see a European tour player playing in foul weather gear is more the rule than the exception.

I know that hindsight is 20/20 but PGA Tour players not named Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson have NO shot when seasoned, battle-tested, champion European Tour pros suddenly appear in their rear-view mirrors.

Just protect and just serve

Whatever happened to the motto "to serve and protect" as the prescript for some of our police forces. It's being made a mockery of by more and more renegade lawmen, their departments and their associated jurisdictions.

These peace officers inevitably take an oath but some of our sworn officers have deviated from it to the point where it no longer has relevance.

Given the abundance of crime they continually deal with, it's no wonder that the letter of the law oftentimes takes a back seat to survival instincts. Nonetheless, there's no excuse for abusing the badge, the gun and the state's authority.

And as tempting as it is, it's still no use to cite individual incidents considering how long-suffering and pervasive this problem is.

How do we curb the homicide, brutality, profiling, roadblocks, fallacious warrants, harassment and condescension?

We have to demand it. They have to manage it.

Demand it from your elected officials. http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Let your county commissioner, your city councilman, your mayor and most importantly the hierarchal leaders of your local police force know that you want your police force to serve and protect and not intimidate non-violent, non-threatening members of the citizenry who are just going about their normal daily activities.

Our law enforcement officers are oftentimes referred to as 'Our Finest'. Well, our finest need the finest training and management. They need continuing education on how to best keep our communities safe while peacefully co-existing with the residents. They need to be reminded of their ultimate responsibilities on a regular basis (like every day).

In the days before police forces there were tribunals. If someone in the village violated the code of conduct, they went before the tribunal and were dealt with accordingly. Somewhere along the line the tribunals got replaced by the Fuzz. Dialing 911 won't put us through to one of the esteemed and exalted village elders. For better or worse, however, we have the “Po-leese” now and they do come in handy when the bad guys have us cornered.

But, to all my policemen and policewomen, please review your police officer oath every day and let it be your guide.

http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=40363@ktvt.dayport.com

How'd that turtle get on top of that fence?....someone put it there.

With regard to the global economic crisis, there is undoubtedly plenty of blame to go around.

A lot of people are chomping at the bit to lay blame on the new prez.

How culpable could he possibly be? He just got elected 2 months ago.

I don't expect any leader of any country to be an expert on much more than politics.

And I don't believe that Obama sneaks up to his reading room after Michelle and the girls have gone to sleep to pore over his Econ. 101 textbook from freshman year to try and get an understanding of this crisis.

He has advisors for that and every other pressing issue.

This global economic crisis has sprouted several new buzzwords and phrases and some that have a history; but it's one with which we are very unfamiliar.

For example, 10 years ago, no one knew or cared about toxic assets, mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps or credit derivatives.

A cursory connecting of the dots, however, reveals that our new prez both knows and cares about all the above as he has studied them extensively.

Draw your own conclusions.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92337754&sc=emaf

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/06/obama_shows_hints_of_his_year_in_global_finance?s_campaign=8315

The Long Run: Obama's Account of New York Years Often Differs From What Others Say

To all my Conspiracy Theorists:

You call them conspiracy theorists, I call them truth seekers. Here is some juicy fodder regarding the fraudulent bailout/stimulus package:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reynolds/reynolds19.html

Geo's Prescription?:

We have a captive audience in the schools. Youth ages 4-18 are required by law to attend public school. Grab them there, hold on tight and don't let go until you have Barack Obama.

I love the burgeoning Charter School movement because the curriculums can be tailored to suit our needs.

In most major cities the dropout rate for black youth is over 40 percent. If the schools were nurturing our children accordingly that number would be significantly lower. The current public school curriculum and the administering of it is not capturing the imagination of our children, it's not challenging them and it's not identifying and cultivating their individual talents. There's just not enough appeal there to reach our at-risk youth. Not to mention the fact that our children are on the bottom of the totem pole with regard to math and science especially as compared to South Asian schoolchildren, for instance.

Where in the Curriculum Bible does it say that a four year old cannot arrive at school Monday morning and eat a fruit salad from the student run organic produce garden on the school grounds, then scamper off to math class, 2nd Line over to music class, bolt to the driving range to hit balls for an hour, back to the garden for lunch, burn off that salad in art class and maybe end the day splitting atoms or something in science class.

We have got to take matters into our own hands. The system has failed us.

Once we hearken back to the pre-Brown vs. The Board of Education days and start molding Kings and Queens again things will start to fall back into place. Or at least I hope.

My President is Black

...My Lambo's blue....

The wait is over y'all. Our ship has come in. It's a done deal. Now what? Well, for those of us who voted for Obama because he's black, I have good news! He'll still be black four to eight years from now. For those of you who voted for the man because you believe he can fix the economy and the quagmire in the Middle East (and he did claim he could), I have bad news. Not even a consortium featuring the likes of Harry Houdini, David Blaine, David Copperfield and the Amazing Kreskin can fix this economy and bring peace to the Middle East. Y'all gon' stay disappointed. Barack will attack the economic downturn and the Middle East crisis like all Presidents have and will. Nothing to report here.

So what should we (the whole wide world) expect to harvest from this Obama presidency? I say brainpower. As a black man of 43 years I'm old enough to grasp the concept of the "lost generation". Witnessing Obama's ascendency has undoubtedly left an impression on even the most downtrodden of we, but what will become of it? Instead of pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams of an Obama presidency that cures all economic and geopolitical ills, let's ignore politics and look at this thing from its most rudimentary level. How can an Obama presidency enable Black Americans to corral those of the lost generation, bring them back into the fold and encourage them to reach their potential? Y'all know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the prisoners, the deadbeat dads, the teenage babymamma baby making machines, the 40 ounce bottle of Malt Liquor club, the crackheads, the High School dropouts, the armed robbers, burglars, carjackers and rapists, the cheese-eating uncle toms and thomasina's and those like me who don't necessarily fall into any of the aforementioned categories but who squandered opportunity after opportunity to really maximize their God-given abilities. There's enough brainpower there to cure cancer in a month. It's not too late for us to regain that wasted potential.

We've got the next four years to right the ship. Our ancestors introduced the world to religion, ALL the sciences, monotheism, family life, etc. The list of inventions by Black inventors is mind-boggling. They still haven't figured out how we built the pyramids. I could go on and on. We have the potential, we have the aptitude and we have a shining star as an example of what we can achieve outside the realm of sports and entertainment. So let's stop praying for Barack to whip out a magic wand and let's embrace the idea that 'Yes We Can' become Kings and Queens again. All of we.