HEY! Leave Him ALONE!

Listen and repeat for best results. If you hear "What are you gonna do about it?"

Say, "I'M not going to let you bully my friend!" Pretty soon, you'll find that if it gets to the "What are you going to do about it?" there will be a chorus of voices all echoing what was difficult for you to say initially.

Bullying is pretty universal and mainly a teenybopper thing, but it happens occasionally around so called "adults."

This past Tuesday night, a guy came into karaoke after he got off work and he was parading around the room saying, "He can't sing!" (The amazing thing was, I wasn't the one singing) We are acquaintances, not friends, so I said, "Hey...it's karaoke, Man."

My table chimed in with me. No, we weren't crazy about the song being sung, but that doesn't matter. Later, that same jerk came over to me after my song and told me I was "really good." I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to tell him that coming from him, that wasn't much of a compliment.

I recall as a kid in Arlington, Virginia hearing neighborhood kids singing in their nanny nanny boo boo style, "Fatty, fatty, two by four...couldn't get through the bathroom door!"

I probably have a permanent fat image of myself from those early experiences,

Then, when I was in 7th grade, there was a bully who waited in front of the drug store every day for me. He wanted to play a game he called "punch out."

"You hit me in the arm as hard as you want and then I'll hit you! Go ahead...HIT me!" I should have knocked him out, but I was young and stupid and didn't recognize what a punk he truly was.

Some of you will know who I'm speaking of when I talk of a friend who was in a motorcycle accident some call the Energizer Bunny. He LOVES to dance. Occasionally, he'll be the victim of "REtard" remarks. I don't let them go by without rebuke. We have to stand up to bullies. We can't rely on the government to do it for us. All they make is bureaucracy and snail mail.

There's another side to this. People and groups of people have to stop being such sissies. Okay, you're black and someone used the "n" word on you. They've already shown their ignorance. Try not being so sensitive.

I disagree with my dad's generation about "fighting words." His was characterised by the initials S.O.B. and he had many fights over it.

In all honesty, there are word that tick me off. But getting ticked off is a CHOICE. Let's choose to remain in control!