The United States flexes its power with all the strength of a 110 lb weakling that insists on remaining intellectually skinny. Yep, it’s getting sand kicked in its face. Every day. Every hour. And it has shrunk even more to like it better.
A new bully has arisen in the schoolyard who is bullying, as a bully is want to do, the different kid in school. So, the US surmises that it really, really wants to be friends with the new bully because of what it learned in his new multiculturalism classes and also because he’s scared. He knows the bully is just a misunderstood kid. Loud, obnoxious and not quite right in the head, but really, just misunderstood. He also thinks that the bully is just begging for attention.
The US formulates a plan. His family, his advisors and others tell him not to do it, but his teachers and the principle applaud him and give him little gold stars on the bulletin board in the hall for all to see. He is so blinded by pride that he doesn’t see the other kids laughing at him.
The little boy called US wants to help the other students understand that the bully is good underneath, though scared himself of the bully, and that the different student is really at fault for standing up to the bully because he is only making the bully more so. It is the different student’s fault because he won’t understand that we are really all alike. US decides to hit a home run to settle this because he is fearful in his little heart that it may get worse out then in the play yard, in the halls and in the classroom if he doesn’t find a really cool compromise.
He decides to confront the different student with the possibility of becoming an outcast. He says that if the different student doesn’t come to understand that his belligerence in wanting to be not bullied is only making the bully stronger then he, the US student, will have to make a stand to force the different student to compromise, if only to protect the different student .
After speaking with his teachers, his principle and the counselors from the district multiculturalism council the kid US confronts the different student by siding with the bully over whether the bully has a right to call the different student names because the bully wants the different student’s locker. He proudly sides with the bully, if only to protect the different student from even worse abuse and bullying.
When the different student laughs at the boy US and the bully and walks away, the little boy US shakes his head and proclaims he has done all that can be done to protect the different student and that he really, really hopes that things could be changed.
The bully is outraged. He yells that he tried to get along; he cries that people misunderstand him and he throws things and screams that he has rights. The teachers comfort the bully and the principle calls the different student to the office. The different student calmly listens to the principle and when he is finished the different student explains his point of view to the principle. He explains that he had the right to his locker because the principle and the school had assigned him that locker. He further states that ethically he cannot accept bullying because his parents had been bullied, his grandparents had been bullied and, in fact, his ancestors through time had been bullied and that taught him that the bullying had to stop here.
The principle, standing with the little peacemaker boy called US, called all the teachers and counselors into the great assembly hall to announce that they had to come to a resolution to the problem. The different student would not only relinquish his locker, he would also give his seat on student council and his place on the honor roll to the bully and he, the different student, would publically apologize to the bully, the entire student body and the community for supporting hatred and for fomenting injustice.
The teachers, the bully, the counselors and the principle beamed with the satisfaction of knowing that their cool heads had averted an explosive situation. The school became a model of multiculturalism to guide other schools to what they must do.
The different student gave up his seat on the student council and so did other students. The different student handed over his place on the honor roll to the bully and students saw that the honor roll was no longer something to aspire to. He gave the key to his locker to the principle and other students decided that they no longer needed their lockers. The different student sent a note to his public apology ceremony stating that he meant only to stand up for his rights and that he hadn’t intended to offend the good people of the community. Then he transferred to another school.
The little boy US became editor of the school paper and valedictorian of his class. US started having lunch with the principle, teachers and the bully though each day the bully grew larger as he consumed more and more of their lunch. During these lunches the bully brought up how unfair the curriculum was to bullies everywhere and how it might cause further unrest if the curriculum wasn’t changed. In their wisdom, the teachers, the principle, the counselors and the little boy US decided that the student body and the community would be better served if the bully's changes were implemented.
Soon, the school name was changed to Bully High School, the curriculum represented the bully's view of the world and students drifted off to other schools and talked about the different student and his stand. The little boy US grew up to be the little man US and for a time made his way as a peacemaker. The bully grew fat and powerful and even more arrogant in his bullish stupidity. He was still always angry, but he became the principle finally. The school reflected him.
That’s how a 110 lb weakling negotiates from weakness.
