Bullies and threats

Shannon Bohrer

(4/2022) In just several years we have experienced the pandemic, distant learning, several impeachment trials, an insurrection at the capital, disruptive school board meetings, book bannings, increases in crime, reported widespread mental health issues (possibly related to all of the above) and divisive politics. I am sure I left out a few things but the experiences that we have all endured have in many ways affected all of us. You might think that these common or collective experiences would in some ways unite us, and in some ways, they have. The opposite is also true; in other ways, we seem more separated and even indifferent to others.

My wife and I experienced the indifference, in the form of rudeness and hostility, last fall while we were working along the road frontage on our farm. An individual riding a motorcycle passed and as he rode by, he yelled F -Biden several times. I thought the belligerent behavior odd, we did not know him, and I don't think he knew us. My first thought was how insecure does one have to be - to bully or threaten someone they do not know? Of course, threatening behavior to strangers is becoming more common. We hear of individuals at school boards threatening others; in one case, the individual was arrested for threatening to bring a firearm to the next meeting. Disagreeing with a school board decision and expecting the decision to change because you threaten to bring a gun to the next meeting does not seem a rational strategy. A good argument could be made that threatening or shooting someone weakens your position.

As a country, we have a history of dealing with divisive politics and both external and internal threats. However, we did not expect that dealing with the pandemic or the insurrection would lead to the volume and intensity of personal bullying and threats that we are experiencing. Government officials responsible for elections are being threatened because they counted votes. Well-known medical doctors are threatened because they believe in science. Airline employees are being bullied, threatened, and even assaulted because they tell someone to wear masks. I think it bears repeating that threats and assaults with the intent or purpose to intimidate someone seems like a poor strategy.

Bullying and making threats are not unique to today's society. Growing up, I experienced bullies early in my school years. In the 1950s, bullies seemed prevalent. One did not think of them as a problem, as an issue, or anything abnormal. They just existed. It was later in my life that I understood and realized the physical and psychological harm they caused. The bullies did not bully me personally, so I just ignored them, and they learned to ignore me. When a problem does not affect you in ways that you consider harmful, it does not mean the problem does not exist.

Years later, when bullying became the topic of concern is when I realized the harm they often inflict. While having an understanding of the physical and emotional trauma that bullying inflicts on some of its victims, I reflected on my early years, realizing that bullies always existed. By this time in my life I was a Maryland State Trooper and had encountered adult bullies. Adult bullies, from my perspective, were just juvenile bullies that never grew up. Instead of picking a fight in a schoolyard, they went to bars, drank too much, and demonstrated how drunks lose fights.

Examining the threatening behaviors’, we are experiencing today is different than the macho models from my past. The model of the schoolyard bully or the bravado and courage that comes from a bottle of an intoxicated individual seems dissimilar or different from the current threatening behaviors we are experiencing. I always thought that the schoolyard bullies did not care about your thoughts or your preferences; they just wanted to prove they were "tough." As if being "tough" was an admirable trait. The problem with their logic was that the bullies were not all that tough. It is easy to physically overpower some people, but that just means you can bully someone weaker than yourself. It is like having two bulls in your pasture, they will work it out, and one will be in charge, at least until a third bull is introduced.

The difference with today’s bullies appears to be their motivation. They want the election official to change the results; they want a doctor to stop speaking about a dangerous epidemic. "A Texas man was recently plead guilty to threatening a Maryland doctor who has been a prominent advocate for COVID-19 vaccines…." At a school board meeting in Virginia, a local doctor spoke in favor of masking mandates for children. The doctor was booed, and when leaving the meeting, one person yelled at him, "We know where you live." How insecure does someone have to be to threaten another person – because they do not think like them?

There are societies where everyone agrees or seems to agree on the topics of the day. Those societies, where everyone has the same opinions and conforms to one line of thought, suppresses the individual freedom of thought. Communism and fascism typify these societies and are run by autocrats and dictators. Do all citizens in those societies really think alike, or do they not express their thoughts for fear of being called out or threatened? In societies where expressing your differences is generally frowned upon, the expressed differences often disappear. Sometimes, the person(s) that expresses the differences disappears.

In the United States, we have the freedom of thought and the expression of those thoughts because we live in a democracy that ensures those freedoms in our laws. Those freedoms, along with others, do not exist in authoritarian regimes. Those that believe we should all think alike, or think more like them, could be moving in the wrong direction. While we may not agree with the words or ideas of others, maybe we should celebrate the diversity, for the freedom that it represents.

"The last of human freedoms—the ability to choose one's
attitude in a given set of circumstances." - Viktor Frankl