There was a teenage boy walking to his bus stop just a few hundred yards from his house. In the distance, he could see a boy his age pounding a folded umbrella on the head of another teenage Asian boy, who had his arms up to protect his face, begging the boy to stop. Running as fast as he could, the first boy reached the bus stop when the umbrella broke because it was hitting the Asian boy so hard. The first boy grabbed the umbrella away from the hitter and flung it as far as he could so the hitter would leave the area to get it. He asked the Asian boy what happened, and the Asian boy replied that the hitter was boasting about the greatness of Trump and the Asian boy said that Trump was racist, misogynistic, and would be a dangerous president to have (this was the day before the election). The hitter apparently could not come up with a coherent response so he angrily began hitting with his umbrella. The first boy asked, “why didn’t you fight back? You needed to protect yourself!” And the Asian boy replied, “My parents taught me to never hit; to not fight.”
The bus then arrived and everybody started boarding. The bus driver told the hitter that he couldn’t bring the broken umbrella onboard due to safety issues. The boy cried, “But I only JUST broke it!” And the Asian boy piped up, “BECAUSE HE WAS USING IT TO HIT ME. He was attacking me at the bus stop!” The bus driver said nothing; did nothing; just waved the boys to their seats. The first boy was dumbfounded that an adult in a position to right a wrong; whose job it is to make sure school children are safe, said nothing at all.
When they arrived at school, the first boy encouraged the Asian boy to report the incident to the school, since they didn’t know if there would be more aggression from the hitting boy wanting to finish the job he started. They walked to the school safety officer (a police officer assigned to the school) and the Asian boy said, “I was just assaulted by another boy.” And the first boy said, “I witnessed it.” And the school proceeded to do exactly what they were trained to do. They interviewed the boys, had the boys write out statements, identify the aggressor through photographs in the yearbook, then the Asian boy was sent to the nurse while the school contacted his parents to report the incident. The first boy got a tardy slip and he went to his classes and finished his school day.
Later on that night, over dinner, the boy told his parents what had happened. They had all just been discussing how many of the boy’s friends said they liked Trump, but when the boy pressed them about their views, it turned out that they were just parroting their parents and didn’t truly understand the dangerous consequences of Trump becoming president. Then the boy said, “This happened today…” and the story about the bully at the bus stop came out. The parents were shocked; the father wanted to contact the school, while the mother worried about how the Asian boy was doing. The boy insisted that his Father not call the school, because he thought the Asian boy’s parents would be causing enough fuss. The boy worried about the repercussions of his intervention. He wondered if the bully boy’s parents owned a gun. He planned to have another friend drive him to school the next day, just in case the school did nothing to punish the aggressor and he was waiting at the bus stop wanting revenge. Both parents did this: they praised the boy for being brave; for standing up and doing something; for not being afraid in the moment, of the bully, and protecting someone who could not help himself. They told him they were glad that, even though he was strong enough and he really wanted to, he didn’t throw the bully on the ground and fight him; that defending yourself is different from using the bully’s type of violence to pound him into the ground. And they talked about how the other kids at the bus stop stood around watching the whole thing and didn’t even say anything. The family talked about how similar Trump’s rise to power was to Hitler’s, and how many of Trump’s followers were very similar to Hitler’s followers. They worried about history repeating itself, and how easy it would be for people like the bus driver and the other kids at the bus stop, to look the other way while a bully was hurting someone who could not protect himself. They talked about how quickly something can escalate into violence when people with violence in their hearts are given permission to act out their aggressions on others. They ended their day going to bed with worry in their hearts, for the possible future that could throw their country against the world and against their fellow citizens; a frightening future that could reach into their home and put them in danger.
This didn’t happen in an inner city neighborhood; this didn’t happen to a stranger that I never met, whose story is far away and hard to care about. This happened in a prosperous suburban neighborhood in the whitest county in the nation’s 20 most populous counties. This happened here, just steps from my house. The boy walking to his bus stop was my 16 year old son. He was brave; did everything we ever taught him to do. He stood up for what was right and defended someone who was being attacked by a bully. But he was outnumbered at that bus stop. There were many other kids who witnessed the bullying before my son could make it there and intervene. Why didn’t they do something? Parents, why aren’t you telling your children to speak up and take action? Why aren’t you sitting them down and having this SPECIFIC conversation about standing up to bullies? As parents, why aren’t we being good examples to our children by practicing what we preach? Post-election, we now have a bully that will be in charge. He will most likely advocate and encourage other bullies to attack the vulnerable in our country. It is up to us to protect the ones who can’t fight back. It is up to us to get involved in our government and do what we can to resist the dangerous changes. And let me add to the phrase we all know so well, “If you see something, say something, and DO something.”
Studies have shown that it only takes ONE person to speak up in a dangerous situation to move others to join them and defend what’s right. I am speaking up right now. Join me.
Letters From Narnia 