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  PROVERBS 24:10-12

  When I was in middle school in Detroit, school life was reasonably peaceful except for the existence of bullies. There was one particular young man whom I will call Jonathan, who took great delight in beating me and pushing me around as well as heaping verbal abuse on me and others. It reached a point where I would alter my pathways in order to avoid him. I tried to stay out of his sight as much as possible and generally kept very quiet when he was around. One day on the way home from school, he began picking on me for no reason and I simply decided that I had had enough and I challenged him to a fight. He did not wish to fight and decided to leave me alone, not only on that day, but every day after. The situation could have ended up quite differently with my taking a severe beating, but even if that had been the case, I had decided that I would withstand as many beatings as necessary to make it clear that I would no longer be his punching bag.

  Even after Jonathan stopped bothering me, there were others to take his place, but that all ended soon after I joined the ROTC in the latter part of the tenth grade and rapidly rose through the ranks. My uniform was covered with ribbons, medals, and ropes that were quite impressive and the bullies had so much respect for that uniform that they showed me great deference.

  Today, we Americans may feel bullied by the PC police, elites, historical revisionists, bigots, dividers, and spenders mentioned in the previous sections. We may be discouraged or afraid, but we must take action. As I learned from my experience with Jonathan, there are two ways of dealing with bullies: standing up to them and gaining their respect. Being quiet or trying to ignore them usually doesn’t work and frequently emboldens them to keep trying to get a reaction from the victim. Taking calm, mature, rational action is the only way to stop them.

  Media Bullies

  One of the biggest bullies is the media, which has a tremendous advantage because of the regular platform from which it launches attacks against victims who don’t have a national broadcast stage to disseminate their defense. Like Jonathan, the media will continue its relentless attacks on those it does not approve of until they submit or mount a credible counterattack. It is rare that its victims have an equally loud microphone to refute the accusations leveled by their attackers. This means the victims must take maximum advantage of every weapon they do have.

  Social media provides one very effective way to gain allies against the media bullies. These allies can help one another collectively recall blatantly untrue positions that have been advocated by the bullies in the past. They can also help organize boycotts of the offending media outlets once a critical mass of individuals has been convinced of the problem. Members of the media are very sensitive to ratings and their behavior can be changed by a strong group of individuals with a large following who threaten to boycott them. If social media is used to persuade large numbers of people to stop watching an offending program, the program’s ratings, which determine whether the program will continue, will fall. In the end, most members of the media are more concerned about survival than ideology and will listen when the boycotts are successful, even though they will not admit that the ratings resulted in the changes they subsequently made.

  Political Bullies

  Politicians are even more sensitive than the media to organized resistance. They count on the fact that most people are not paying close attention to their votes and their actions and frequently are clueless regarding whether their representatives actually reflect their values. They know that many people go into the voting booth looking for a name that looks familiar or one that is affiliated with their political party and simply vote on that basis with no further critical analysis. When well-organized groups within their constituency begin to point out to others their critical shortfallings, they start to panic and will frequently put out television or radio ads trying to reassure voters that they are on their side.

  It is hoped and anticipated by the current administration, as well as previous administrations, that the majority of American citizens will be much more interested in what their professional sports teams are doing than they will be in holding leaders accountable. The current crop of politicians and many of those who preceded them are not necessarily bad people, but they believe that they know what is best for people and act on their beliefs rather than fulfilling their role of service to them. By stonewalling and depending on the short memory and attention span of the average citizen, it is quite possible for them to skate by with no consequences for their transgressions.

  The way to push back against such officials is to track their votes and demonstrate a consistent voting pattern that is not in the interest of their constituencies. Exposing the negative pattern to the public using social media, radio and television ads, and newspaper articles can wake up apathetic voters and inspire them to take action. The side using this strategy most effectively is likely to be victorious, which means the majority can actually lose if they just sit by and assume that voters will check the records themselves.

  As the opposition, we have to be just as persistent as the supporters of the representatives who truly do not represent their constituents. By that I am referring to the people who say one thing to get elected, but then follow the dictates of party leaders rather than the people’s will. As I said earlier, I would love to one day see elections in America where we do not indicate party affiliations on the ballot. This would force people to actually research the candidates and make intelligent choices. Until then, we must push back hard to inform our fellow citizens of problems with our leaders.

  Citizens also have to be organized enough to keep records of their representatives’ responsiveness so they can vote them out of office if necessary. It would be amazing how responsive representatives would become if this were done on a regular basis. What I am talking about is not complex, but does require real energy and willingness to fight for a truly free society. It has been done before: American farmworkers and environmentalists were able to get the toxic pesticide azinphos-methyl (AZM), a chemical warfare agent, removed from the agricultural market through persistent lobbying that led to legal action. Today we need to follow the example of those Americans and heed the words of cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

  Academic Bullies

  Another area where a great deal of bullying takes place is on university campuses. Several recent surveys have shown that the vast majority of college professors are liberals. Being a liberal is not a problem unless you only teach from a liberal perspective and penalize students with different views. Unfortunately, university professors generally are not held to high standards of fairness by their administrations because the university officers are also liberal.

  Case in point: A conservative student at Florida Atlantic University was suspended from school because he refused to participate in a class “exercise.” His professor asked the class to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper, place this on the ground, and stomp on it. The student respectfully introduced himself as a devout Mormon, and requested to be excused from the exercise. After the professor insisted, the student went to the professor’s superior only to be suspended from school.

  What can students and citizens do to fight back against political bias on campus? Fortunately the board of trustees at most institutions of higher learning have a significant number of moderates and conservatives as members. These are frequently people who have had great financial success and have experience in the evenhanded application of rules. Grievances concerning political bias should be brought to these individuals in a formal way and they should not be filtered through a university official. Electronic, print, and social media should also be used to publicize the state of affairs if efficient action is not taken by the board of trustees. Most universities are terrified of substantiated negative information about their practices and will act if grievances are brought in a responsible way to thei
r attention. Inaction by the grieved parties will only guarantee continuance of the grievance.

  Bullies in Business

  Business entities such as stores and organizations that sell products are especially vulnerable to publicized accusations of bullying and unfairness. Their public persona is their most valuable asset and they can ill afford boycotts or public demonstrations against them. For example, a few years ago a large big-box store chain banned its employees from saying “Merry Christmas.” The negative press associated with this was so significant that they relented the following Christmas season, an excellent lesson for other retailers.

  One of the best examples in American history of collective community action to change grossly unfair practices was the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s. The most powerless members of the community, namely the blacks, were able to bring the racist business community to its knees by effectively withholding financial resources, which are the lifeblood of any business. If it is difficult to rally support against what you feel is an unjust practice, it might be wise to reexamine the situation and get other opinions to determine whether you are justified in your opinion.

  Unintentional Bullying

  Sometimes bullying is not blatant or even intentional. In 2004 my colleagues and I took on the case of the Block conjoined twins from Germany. They were type 1 vertical craniopagus, which means they were joined at the top of the head facing in the same direction. By this time I had learned a great deal about conjoined twins and decided on a new approach. Since the neurosurgical department at Johns Hopkins is rated number one in the country and because I had so many incredibly talented colleagues, I felt it would be wise to involve as many of them as possible in the attempted separation. Some people were renowned vascular neurosurgeons, while others specialized in tumors and tissue separation and others were very skilled with osseous endeavors. By slotting each team into the operation when we reached the part where their expertise would be most valuable, we were able to proceed rapidly with the separation and in fact were ten hours ahead of schedule when the heart of one of the twins (who had had multiple cardiac problems during anesthetic procedures prior to the operation) stopped.

  Fortunately CPR was successful, but I knew we had to do more to take care of the problem. I was quite concerned about the heart problems of the one twin and suggested that we consider placing a temporary pacemaker before continuing the operation in a couple of days. One of the anesthesiologists involved was quite adamant that we did not need a pacemaker and that that was his area of expertise. The pediatric cardiologists had mixed views about what should be done. Eventually we proceeded with the rest of the separation without a pacemaker. Unfortunately, at the conclusion of the operation the twin with a weak heart once again suffered a cardiac arrest but this time could not be revived. Fortunately the other twin did well, but we were all quite devastated by the loss of our patient.

  In this case I felt quite strongly that a pacemaker should have been placed and that it would have given us a better chance of avoiding tragedy. Afterward I realized that I had too easily yielded to someone who claimed to be a greater authority on the issue. I clearly should have pushed harder for my point of view since the benefit-to-risk ratio would have been favorable for pacemaker versus no pacemaker. By the same token, in situations outside the operating room it is valuable to look at the benefit-to-risk ratio to determine how hard to fight. Of course one needs to be well informed on the issues before making such an analysis, but the rewards can be substantial.

  People are unintentionally bullied all the time by political correctness, which keeps them from saying what they really want to say, because they feel that they will be ostracized and disliked. Everyone likes to feel as though they are a part of the community and appreciated, and that makes them relatively easy to bully into compliance and/or silence. Instead of succumbing to bullies, Americans need to grow backbones, examine their understanding of an issue, and push back if they are sure they are right. Being temporarily unpopular for your political view is a small price to pay for moving our nation back from the brink of disaster.

  Our Heritage of Courage

  The American colonialists were quite content with British oversight until that oversight became burdensome with ever-increasing taxes and abuse of power. If the British government’s thirst for the resources of the colonialists had not grown so large, Americans might never have sought independence, but it is the natural tendency of all governments to grow, and they require revenue to do so. Fortunately for America, the rebellion against the English crown was successful and a new era of freedom sprang up on this continent.

  The same thing is happening in America today that happened to the colonialists of old. As our government grows larger and more complex, it will require increasingly larger proportions of the people’s earnings. Also, as the rights of the government increase, the rights of the people decrease. The question is will the American people of today be as courageous and tough as the colonialists were and are they ready for the ultimate push back? Are they ready to stand boldly for those things they believe in without fear of consequences and are they willing to fight with all tools available to them against those who wish to change the nature of the country from people-centric to government-centric?

  Dire Consequences of Giving In

  Throughout history many societies have failed to push back and have allowed an overly aggressive government to expand and dominate their lives. Nazi Germany is a perfect example of such a society. One can only wonder what would’ve happened if people had not tolerated the foolishness of Adolf Hitler’s appeal to the baser instincts of greed and envy and his institution of an official weapons confiscation program. He made one group of Germans feel that the success of another group was impeding their own financial progress. He trumped up reasons to confiscate the populace’s weapons to quell any subsequent ideas about resistance. His regime may have started out innocently enough, but because the people did not oppose a progressively overreaching government, the entire world suffered a great Holocaust. Some may say that I’m being overly dramatic in comparing U.S. circumstances with Germany’s state of affairs before pure evil gained the upper hand there, but few people have recognized the precursors of national societal tragedies and even fewer have done anything about them. Bullies do whatever they can get away with and keep pushing the boundaries until they meet resistance. It is the people’s job to stop them before they become uncontrollable.

  Push Back Peacefully and Consistently

  Lest anyone get the wrong impression, I am not advocating armed insurrection, but rather just making ourselves aware of what is going on vis-à-vis our freedom. It is ineffective to sit around and complain while the encroachment continues. Instead, concerned citizens should be educating their neighbors, circulating petitions, having community discussions that involve their elected representatives, and using social media to get others involved in the struggle to return power to the people and reduce government’s size and influence. Every activist has a sphere of influence and at the very least can inform friends about voting issues.

  Fighting back against bullies does not always result in immediate victory and, in some cases, you will be soundly defeated. However, bullies like soft targets and if you continue to fight every time they infringe on your rights, you will eventually wear them down and they will look for easier targets. Bullies are cowards, and they will not pick on those who fight back for long.

  Win Through Respect

  Standing up to bullies doesn’t always mean fighting them directly. As I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, there is another option: gaining their respect. One of the best examples of this kind of pushing back is about a young female substitute teacher at my high school in Detroit. Substitute teachers were often treated quite roughly, but this teacher, who was very short in stature, commanded classrooms where you could hear a pin drop because even the biggest and toughest guys were afraid of her. She was not a mean person, but she consistently refu
sed to tolerate disrespect and insubordination. She was very warm toward students who behaved themselves. One might say she became the bully, but in fact, she was just taking a strong, principled stand that demanded respect, while at the same time being respectful of others.

  In fighting back against the secular progressives who wish to control our lives with big government, it is important not to emulate their behavior with respect to denigrating their enemies with name-calling and lies. Instead, be calm and courteous and even nice, because as the Bible says in Proverbs 25:21-22, “If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals on their heads, and the Lord will reward you.” In other words, your enemy will feel much worse if you treat him nicely than if you retaliate. This does not mean that you shouldn’t expose what your enemies are doing and that you shouldn’t have a plan of counterattack that is wise and well thought out.

  Know Your Enemy

  A final word on bullies: It is very important to know who your “enemies” are. They are not your average fellow Americans. Don’t mistake neighbors who simply disagree with you for bullies—they are your teammates who happen to have different points of view. Disagree with them, try to educate them, learn from them yourself, but don’t fight them. Instead, push back against the real bullies—those people and influences that wish to fundamentally change America to another type of society. They can belong to any political party and frequently they disguise themselves as great humanitarians. Unless you understand the philosophy of freedom that created our nation and carefully compare new ideas and actions against that philosophy, it becomes very difficult to determine who and what forces are trying to change the nature of our country. Keen observation of current events and diligent study of history and current events is the best way to determine who the enemies of the American Dream are. Once you identify these bullies, you can stand up to them with courage, and they will back down.