Tragedy has an odd way of breeding conspiracy. This occurs because the tragic elements of our lives set our imaginations aflame. You hear people say all the time that there must be a reason for things occurring and, often, this is true. However, people tend to romanticize the tragic a bit too much. While life is precious and it is certainly important, life’s importance does not outweigh the importance of the truth because the entire basis of existence itself is, in fact, truth. So it is up to us to remain objective during desperate times. It is up to us to control our sometimes rabid and hallucinatory emotional states. I mean no disrespect to those who are victims of tragedy; I have endured my fair share indeed and so mocking such people would be nothing more than self-hatred. I am not attacking anyone. I am trying to instill within a sense of urgency about separating mythos from reality. We must always do this, no matter how much pain we suffer. We cannot be like people on social media, who theorize about non-existent race wars. One of the things I saw a lot of people online saying after the tragedy in Wisconsin is that Darrell Brooks, a lifetime criminal who appears to be severely mentally disturbed, committed his despicable act in order to incite a race war on white people. This argument, that all black people are seeking the violent overthrow of white American hegemony, appears constantly in the history of American tragedy. When Noah Green, who was studying to be a member of the far right Nation of Islam, murdered officer William Evans, online “experts” were quick to point the finger a Black Lives Matter, a leftist organization that argues for progressive policies. The rationalization for this is usually an obscure television interview where a member of Black Lives Matter refuses to condemn the Nation Of Islam’s leader. The obscurity of this very irrational rationalization highlights the inherent prejudices of witch hunters and conspiracy theorists. There is no proof that Green’s attack, tragic as it may be, was caused by the Nation Of Islam, Black Lives Matter or any other group. But people at the time were scared and so they developed fantasies to help them deal with their fears of a coming and comically mythical “race war”. If you look back in history you will find that, whenever a black man commits a crime, all black men are subsequently downgraded in status and meant with a cautious eye by white America. There were also conspiracy theories about defund the police causing this crime, but that has no basis in reality either. "In truth, there is no significant Defund-the-Police movement coming from  Milwaukee. The concept of defunding the police is very unpopular, including among communities of color." But Tucker Carlson has blamed defund nonetheless. That is not to say that all white people engage in this prejudice, but it is childish to assume that a small or moderate number of people cannot have an effect on the narrative of a nation that was almost recently overthrown by a few thousand morons. There are also constant narratives about wars on Christmas floating around during this time of year. Many Christians believe that people are angry at them for simply existing, and constant imaginings of persecution fester in the heads of many of America’s Christians. But, most of the time, these violent acts come about because of the negligence of the American justice system. I am not talking about the cops here, but the court system. An assistant district attorney simply failed to set the appropriate bail for Brooks. According to the county district attorney John Chisholm, "You had a young ADA trying to do the very best she could under difficult circumstances, and she made a mistake.” I am not saying that should settle the concerns of the community where this heinous act took place. I am just reporting the truth and the fact of the matter is that the truth is never satisfying, nor does it lead to simple solutions.

We like to think that the products that we buy are sold to us by kindly family folks who are concerned about our well-being. But we think this because this is what we have been taught to think by advanced marketing campaigns, not because that is the reality. However, no matter how much we try to think the kindly old man behind the counter when we go to the store had a caring hand in inspecting our products to ensure quality and, most importantly, safety, what actually happens is much more grim and far less safe than most people imagine. While organizations like the FDA are often portrayed as having all encompassing power to prevent such things, their actual power is very limited, and they can only prevent faulty products from making it to the shelves if and when they can track down said products. After decades of often unfounded skepticism about the intentions of the FDA and subsequent legislation that in many ways decreased the effectiveness of the FDA's ability to crack down on big business, I am reading more and more stories about bargain stores like the Dollar Tree selling toxic products to consumers. All of this is coming at a time when the Dollar Tree is not lowering, but raising its prices. Citing inflation and essentially blaming the Biden administration for high costs, as so many other companies have done, may seem like a good excuse, but it is worth remembering that the Dollar Tree saw a huge increase in profit in 2020. Don't believe me? There is no need. The numbers speak for themselves, "Dollar Tree same-store sales increased 2.2%. Gross profit increased 10.6% to $7.79 billion.  Gross margin improved 70 basis points to 30.5%, compared to 29.8% in  the prior year. Fiscal 2020 included $36.3 million, or 15 basis points,  related to COVID-19 costs." (SEC) Now, how is it that the Dollar Tree was seriously affected by inflation after benefiting from a 10.6% increase in gross profit? On what planet does that make sense? And what about the fact that the Dollar Tree pays its workers ridiculously low wages? The average hourly wage for a cashier is about nine dollars an hour, twelve dollars an hour for assistant managers, and thirteen dollars an hour for a merchandise manager. Further, while news outlets have maintained that workers are driving the increase in prices, I have found no evidence that the Dollar Tree has given or that they plan to give their workers raises. Even more suspect is the fact that the Dollar Tree has experienced worker shortages, which would imply that they are currently saving money on their workforce, not spending it. If all of this is accurate then why is the Dollar Tree struggling to keep quality products on its shelves? Does more profit now equal more loss in America? If you are a consumer, you would think so, especially if you are poor. The Dollar Tree is using its popularity to essentially strong arm its competition out of the neighborhood. The reason you do not often find many small mom and pop stores or supermarkets near a Dollar Tree is because they "...intentionally cluster multiple stores in low-income areas. That strategy discourages  supermarkets from opening and it threatens existing mom-and-pop grocers,  critics say." (CNN Business) That is right. Instead of blaming sitting presidents for those small businesses going under, it is high time we started to point the finger at the real culprit, bargain stores that charge ridiculously low prices for faulty goods that quality stores simply cannot afford to compete with. Dollar stores also keep poor neighborhoods in poor health by selling mostly snack foods and no produce to speak of. These snacks tend to be high in sugar and saturated fats, which lead to increases in heart disease, diabetes and cancers. According to Web Md, for every ten percent increase in dietary intake of highly processed foods, there is a twelve percent increase in the consumer's risk of developing cancer.  

Sexuality has always existed, but the almost obsessive compulsive study of it is quite new. Growing up today one would think that sexual identity and politics are inherently interlinked, that in order to be truly sexual, one most also be labeled politically correct or normative. However, as is often the case, history tells us quite a different story. Even the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual" were invented by a journalist during the nineteenth century, a little over 200 years ago. But these sexual acts always existed in our society. It was not until the age of social Darwinism that terms like "heterosexual" began to be used to identify "normative" sexual behavior. This is why it does not surprise me all that much when comedians like Dave Chappelle are congratulated for picking on transgender people, nor does it surprise me when conservative talking heads like Charlie Kirk try to terrify you about the supposed scourge of "sexual anarchy" that is overtaking the nation. While this argument is often written off as the "lunatic fringe" in liberal circles, we must remember that conservatism is not a fringe movement, but an expression of traditional values. So, in order to understand the threat that conservatism presents to us today, we must understand the conservative traditions that we are expected to adhere to and where they originated. The usage of the word "anarchy" when it comes to sexuality implies that there is a "normal" sexuality and that all other forms of sexuality are abnormal. Once you have defined a behavior as abnormal it becomes increasingly easier to criminalize and punish said behavior. This is how the politicization of human sexuality works in intellectual circles. In politics if something is considered bad, it can be legislated with the will of the people, regardless of what science may suggest; we need only look to the criminalization of cannabis to confirm this political reality. Sexual acts are not immune to this effect. These arguments, which state that all things that are not heterosexual are either laughable or dangerous, are deeply ingrained in American cultural ideology. America has still not come to terms, in fact it has made the potentially devastating error of refusing to even recognize, the fact that eugenics was just as, if not more, popular in America than it was in Germany. Adolph Hitler, Josef Mengele, and Adolf Eichmann used social Darwinism and eugenics to choose their victims for the holocaust, but they obtained these widely popular ideas from American intellectuals and their British forefathers. We need only take a look at the Eugenics Archive to confirm the aforementioned statement, "One of the consistent facets of eugenics over time and place has been an interest in regulating sexual behavior, sexual orientation, and gender expression. Indeed, this one area in which the insidious quest or normalization associated with eugenics movement is very evident. A quick review of the earliest cases of institutional sterilization in Indiana, which passed the world's first sterilization law in 1907, confirms this. Sodomy, which most likely encompassed a wide variety of male same-sex interactions, was the infraction listed for approximately a third of male inmates...at the Jeffersonville Reformatory for vasectomy in the early 1900s. More generally, a concern with sexual deviance permeated eugenics movements across the globe, even as some variants embraced a more progressive 'free love' approach to female sexuality and reproduction. In some cases this focus translated into attempts to control female sexuality to meet the demands of hetero-normative procreation and family formation. For example, many women who were institutionalized or sterilized under eugenic commitment laws were classified as loose, promiscuous, or somehow sexually delinquent." This argument, which seeks to humiliate, demonize, incarcerate, and sterilize those who experiment sexually is a direct threat to our liberties.  

It was always a bet, always a gamble, this acting thing. My black ass never had a chance in hell. But I foolishly listened to the stuff shirts and the snobs and the go getters and the gurus. I kept trying. Every day I tried and tried harder every try. In the old days, the days before I almost died by having a seizure on a train home from a low paying acting job in San Francisco, it was somehow motivating to know that I could always try harder. That was enough to keep me sane back then, but now I realize that all that trying was in vain. I was getting nowhere fast and working way too hard to get there. The acting world never had anything for me but a middle finger and a pitiful stipend. Right now, somewhere in the liberal bay area, some poor black kid is frantically racing to catch a bus; once on that bus, that black kid will travel upwards of two or three hours so he can get to an audition for film, TV or theatre. But the sad truth is that that black kid will likely not get the part because all the theatres in the bay area do the same shows with a mostly white cast. Even if that black kid did manage to get the part, the show, which would rehearse for about five to eight hours a day, six days a week for four months, would pay that poor kid anywhere from two to twelve hundred dollars for the whole show, including the run. That worthless stipend is meant to cover all of that poor kid’s travel, food and childcare costs during that four months. There are, extracting the one day off, ninety-six work days in that calendar. If I assume the best intentions of the theater or film company and they shell out the maximum of $1200, that works out to a grand total of twelve dollars and fifty cents…a day, not an hour, a day. But that is assuming that the company has that in its budget. Generally, the stipend pay for a non-union bay area actor is $200 for the entire run. That comes out to about two dollars and eight cents a day for that poor black kid with stars in their eyes, thinking that there is some kind of hope there. Well, there is not hope there. You cannot sustain a life in California on that, especially not if you have a kid of your own. But the theater owners and the film production companies in the bay area don’t give two shits about that poor black kid. They will tell him to work another job to sustain his “hobby” of acting, to do it for the love of the theater or the camera or the stage or whatever. Meanwhile, they rake in tons of dough on these shows, profiting off the blood, sweat and tears of their hired help…I mean, “entertainers”. But that is California for you, a state that would rather pay black entertainers peanuts than do the right thing. But there is a dual reality in California. On every casting notice you will see the term “color blind casting” meant to portray the idea that anyone can be cast in any role at any time, that they only choose the most talented. So, the message from the California entertainment industry is that white people are more talented than black people, that white people are prettier than black people, that white people are smarter than black people. Of course that is not true, but neither is entertainment. Entertainment is a delusion. Entertainment is escapism, a fantasy world where everything is pure. And so the mostly white union actors get paid about $1200 a week, while that poor kid gets $200 for the whole run. This is justice in California. This is what they call liberalism. This is what they call “equal opportunity”. At times like this, when I reminisce about my experience in this ass backwards entertainment industry, I am often reminded of the movie China Town. At the movie’s end, Jake is forced to see Evelyn’s mangled body lying dead before him due to the town’s corruption and his ignorance. He cries out for mercy, but all he gets in response is “Forget it Jake. It’s China town.” I hear some of you out there now screaming that this just can’t be. Forget it folks. It’s theatre town.

Everyone has heard it before. The news is a secret liberal plot to take over America and all that it holds dear, like the Constitution, guns, Gucci handbags, Popeye's Chicken, shopping malls, red meat, and the right to fire or evict whoever you choose without good reason. It is all a plot, all a conspiracy to take away your right to party. But look, it just ain't true. The media has done nothing but pander to moderates and conservatives for decades now, mostly because the talking heads you see on the news are moderate and conservative. You can not name one liberal broadcaster on the supposedly "liberal" news, not in terms of policy anyway. I still remember the days (it was 2013 to be exact) when CNN's very own Don Lemon, instead of chanting that Black Lives Matter as he does today, used a bogus study to call black people a bunch of lazy, fatherless bums. Here's the quote, "Studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison...pay attention to and think about what has been presented in recent history as acceptable behavior. A culture that glorifies everything I just mentioned, thug and reprehensible behavior, a culture that is making a lot of people rich, just not you. And it’s not going to." For the record, there are just as many studies that demonstrate that children who grow up without fathers in the home turn out perfectly fine. Perhaps if Lemon looked closely at the "thug" culture he is referring to he would note that several successful black celebrities, athletes and business owners came from fatherless homes. Swing and a miss Donny boy. Of course I would be remiss to leave out Chris Cuomo's recent attempt to distort the truth of his brother's vile treatment of women. Where is that in the liberal cannon? Nowhere to be found. And let us not forget the almost never-ending stream of idiotic comments coming out from publications like USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico decrying the "radical progressive" agenda of Joe Biden (the most right of center democrat to hold the presidency in decades), while at the same time pressuring Biden to abandon progressive policies and appeal to "swing voters", who are nothing more than far right libertarians who Biden has no chance of winning by the way. This same "liberal" news media has consistently failed the people of this country by creating a false narrative that people from the far right will come together and compromise. But the compromise they speak of always means that liberals must compromise their values and beliefs, while conservatives dictate what it means to be an American. Because of this self-proclaimed "unbiased" media, the same media that tirelessly defended Joe Manchin (a staunch opponent of abortion) and Krysten Sinema (a darling of prescription drug companies), that so many people call liberal, there is no doubt that abortion will be criminalized, medicare will be defunded, and that big oil will continue to make ridiculous profits by destroying the environment while funding dictators in places like Saudi Arabia and Africa. This is your liberal media and those are the far right conservative policies that they support. And so it came as no surprise to me when the once great, now so-so Daily Show's Trevor Noah decided it would be funny to spread conspiracy theories about the CEO of Moderna. Noah implied that Moderna's CEO has a vested interest in drumming up fear about the new Omicron variant. But where is his proof for this claim? While the "liberal" media has once again put on its rose colored glasses when it comes to the pandemic, citing early studies that say it has mild effects, a report from The Daily Beast states, "The highly transmissible Omicron variant is sending large numbers of unvaccinated children under 5 years old to the hospital." I don't know about you, but my liberal ass is concerned. But then again, "liberal" Trevor Noah would know nothing about that.  

I recently heard someone say one of the smartest things I had ever heard in my life, that being that expectations are premeditated resentments. We already know that people are not perfect. We already know that no one is going to do exactly what we wish them to do all of the time. We already know that people are not going to applaud for us when we finally get that promotion. We already know that people will inevitably get comfortable and begin to take us for granted. We already know that romantic comedies are just poorly written romantic novels. Yet we continue to think that the happy ending is just right around the corner, always elusive, yet always somehow always just out of our grasp because we did not smile enough or laugh enough or meditate enough or appreciate enough. We assume that we need to work harder at...something, anything. But that is simply not the case. Our expectations are our minds playing tricks on us. If you do not get what you want, you will become extremely upset and if you do get what you want, it will never be enough, not if you already lived it in your dreams. Dreams are far superior to anything life has to offer; dreams are perfect and life is anything but perfect. You can go anywhere and do anything in your dreams. You can be amazing 100 percent of the time if you are dreaming. But that will never happen in real life. You will make crucial errors. You will fail, over and over again. And no one is going to come riding in on a great stallion to rescue you from your failure either. You will, eventually, at one point or another, have to admit defeat. But defeat does not have to be the end. In fact, loss can be the start of new beginnings. When my dad died, I did not know what to do. I lost a man who was an intricate part of my identity, and it took me so long to realize that, by being upset at the world for taking him from, I was being extremely unreasonable. What did I expect? Did I think an angry smoker and drinker would be alive forever? I probably did; that was my expectation and how horrible it was experiencing the disappointment, the let down and the maddening rage that came along with it. It is so awful that I did that to myself. I used to blame my father or my friends or my relatives for that pain, but now I realize that it was my unreasonable expectation that caused me such pain and grief. It is just like how I used to go into auditions expecting the casting agent to choose the most talented person, to not be discriminatory while making their casting decisions. What a huge mistake that was. I should have known better. I should have known that people discriminate all the time, that they have their own expectations and that those expectations can be downright mean. I once had a person tell me that they did not expect to see a person who looks like me playing a lawyer, just like I have had people tell me that actors who look like me should play gang members and drug dealers. I remember an old director of mine having to fight to get me into a production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest because I did not look the part to play Chief Bromden in the other director's mind. I remember how silly that seemed to me at the time. But I get it now. In the theater, realism is expected and realism is exclusive and discriminatory. I should have expected such idiocy, but I kept trying to argue to myself that we live in a more advanced era where such prejudices are irrelevant. Well, I was wrong. In the minds of the theater world, I am a drug dealer or a hustler or a slave or a rapist or some other derelict personality I have never been in real life because that is what the theater world expects of black people. And this is why expectation ruins art. Expectation puts art in a box; it restricts and tames it. You cannot have great art without experimentation, the will to try new things, to go where no artist has dared to go before. But artistic directors expect the same profits every year. Reruns again tonight.

While I am no fan of Freudian psychology, also commonly known as bullshit, I also recognize that while mental health studies such as psychiatry and psychology remain flawed, they provided us with many benefits as well. Psychiatrists, while demonized on a daily basis by "natural healers", also known as pseudo scientists, do in fact prevent some people from committing dangerous acts such as suicide, self harm and violent crime. Psychiatrists are, unlike psychologists, whether you like it or not, medical doctors, which is why they are able to prescribe medications. Psychologists, on the other hand, can only prescribe medications in a few states and cannot perform medical procedures. Psychiatrists have had great success treating disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and many, many more. But the same supplement pushers and alternative healers that bombard you with articles and documentaries about the "dangers of psychiatry" would have you believe that the entire field is compromised all because of mistakes that were made in the field's infancy. Well, I hate to break it to you, but making mistakes are a part of scientific discovery. You test your hypothesis, and if a mistake is made, you go back to the drawing board and start again. So of course the early days of psychiatry were not perfect, but we have made great leaps and bounds since then. I personally have seen the rapid and miraculously impressive effects that the field of psychiatry has had on people in my own life. I have known people who were prone to eating disorders, self-mutilation and suicidal thoughts make complete recoveries all because of the field of psychiatry. But psychology has also made great leaps and bounds since it's Freudian nonsense period. Psychologists are excellent at philosophical observation and at providing people with alternative perspectives that they otherwise may never have known. I continue to be particularly impressed by child psychologists, who really do have a knack for understanding the very difficult and turbulent lives that children lead. These psychologists play an important part in our schools, providing students from low income or religious fundamentalists families with services they may not have had access to outside of their school such as: helping students who are bullied, helping those who face struggles like poor academic performance, assisting with problems at home, and identifying mental health issues, as well as helping students who have disabilities. Another little known duty of school psychologists is to conduct threat assessments, a complex process of deciphering whether or not a child will commit violent acts. But now the conservatives of America want to ban mental health programs of all kinds from our schools, arguing that same old ridiculous idea that "parents know what's best for the kids". Do they? Do they really? Because if that is the case then kindly explain to me why Jennifer and James Crumbley purchased a weapon for their child, who would later use that weapon to execute innocent people in cold blood. Explain to me why, when instructed by school staff that their son should go home the day of that killing, that those idiot parents instead demanded that their son go back to class, which enabled him to commit his deadly deed. Explain that to me and while you're at it, explain to me how a conservative movement, that so frequently uses the term "pro-life" as its political banner would argue that talking about bullying, a common cause of violent tendencies in teens and young children alike, with a trained professional is a bad idea. Though people continue to argue that psychology and psychiatry are unneeded in schools, the evidence argues nothing of the sort. Mental health issues are real and, if you ignore them long enough, if you encourage prayer over real medicine, you will continue to see mass violence in schools. Conservatives don't care about that, perhaps they desire it.    

We are all taught, some may even say forced, from a very early age that we should chase our dreams. Why a right of center nation such as America would ever entertain such a notion, I personally will never understand. Achieving one's dreams is a leftist notion that has nothing to do with centrism and certainly nothing to do with conservatism. Just take a look at the definition of the term liberalism: willingness to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; openness to new ideas; the holding of political views that are socially progressive and promote social welfare; a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise. All of these wonderful things that many Americans often claim, incorrectly, to support (democracy, civil liberties, free enterprise, new ideas, and the like) are very much discouraged by Americans in general, whether they be on team red or team blue. The political right, of course, means conservatism and conservatism argues for a strict adherence to traditional values, while centrism is specifically opposed to any kind of social change and often seeks to destroy social changes made earlier in a nation's history. Yet Americans are always prattling on, lying about how they support people who chase their dreams. America, as a nation, is enormously confused about its political identity. It promotes itself as the land of opportunity, while restricting the ability of those in poverty to achieve their career goals. America brazenly declares itself to be the land of the free, while only ever protecting the rights of the few who are in power or who just happen to have enough money to fund those who are in power. This is a nation that will say give me liberty or give me death in one breath and then lick the boots of those who would take away their liberty during election season. America is a nation of mixed messages; it is a nation of pretense and fables. Liberalism has been demonized beyond repair at this point. Americans will not even listen to you if you say you are a liberal, not seriously anyway. Yet one of America's favorite novels, George Orwell's 1984, was written by a liberal libertarian. The entire nation is based on contrariness and so it should come as no surprise that American dreams often become horrific nightmares. But you would not know that because there are all kinds of propaganda in America (reality television shows, Disney movies, game shows, talent shows, children's books, celebrity success stories, rags to riches fantasies, etc.) that make the argument that if you can dream it, you can do it. Well, that simply is not so, not when you live in a country that is so terrified of anything new or different that it fantasizes about the communist implications of Big Bird or the Satanic tendencies of Pokemon or the possibility that "Big Pharma" is trying to kill off its patients with vaccines. Dreams are not allowed in America. Americans desire practicality, pragmatism, a dreary, dull, consistently boring state of numbness and blandness. In order to dream you have to be an innovator, but in America the same movie is made a million times a year, the same book is written everyday and the same stories are endlessly poured through in the news. Americans claim to be proud of "diversity", but really they are boasting about their suppression of it. "Just look at how we've Americanized this culture. Now isn't that impressive?", Americans cry out in unison. And so that is why I tell people not to dream in America because those dreams will become nothing more than a repetitive, torturous nightmare. In America, you must live your dream. You must put it into practice as a kind of magnum opus dedicated to your passions and drives. If you are like me and you are an artist, then live your art. Do not dream about it for it will only be a matter of time before some Debbie downer comes along and rains all over your parade.   

I have been a silent observer of the botched effort by mostly well-meaning counselors, psychologists and intellectuals to curb the dangerous effects of bullying. Year after fruitless year, these supposedly "well-informed" individuals give the same, tired, old advice about how to get bullies to stop their reign of terror. And every year they say the same damn thing: just ignore it. The mantra goes that if you ignore a bully, he will somehow lose interest in bullying because he will not get the reaction he is trying to get out of people. First of all, if you have ever given anyone this miserably useless advice, I have a very important question for you. How on earth would you know what reaction any particular bully is trying to evoke from others? Are you inside the bully's head? Do you have direct contact with a bully psychic who keeps you informed on the daily workings of bully activities? Or are you just blowing smoke up the country's ass in hopes that your next pitiful book deal will be even more prosperous than the last? Whatever your reason for repeating this awful advice every year since I was a young child, we have all had quite enough of your pretense. These experts obviously have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to taming the beast of bullying because both internet and real world bullying have increased in occurrence and severity over the years. Nationwide, twenty percent of students aged twelve to eighteen experience bullying. Nineteen percent of those students were bullied on school property, which demonstrates a huge failure on the part of school faculty and staff to intervene in these incidents. I still remember the rather careless and flippant attitude much of my school faculty took in addressing the issue of bullying. These school employees are absolutely dreadful at creating the culture of mutual respect that is needed to eradicate bullying. In fact, I have personally witnessed many teachers openly embarrass, harass and make inappropriate jokes about their own students, who they are paid to protect by the way. But it is not just the teachers fault. Most adults have failed children by not discussing bullying with young people. In order to prevent people from feeling the need to bully several tactics have been proven to be effective: encouraging children to do what they love (not what is "smart" or what makes the most money; you had your childhood already and it is time for you to back off and let your child do what makes them happy, not you), modeling kindness and respect for children in your daily life (you heard it right; if you act respectful around children then they will act respectful around their peers) and encouraging children to seek help (many young people, especially young boys, are afraid to ask for help because they believe it will make them appear weak). So this is a problem that can be remedied as long as we are all willing to participate in order to make it so. That means being honest with children about the dangers of such behavior, none of that "just get over it and toughen up" crap I hear from so many parents and teachers alike. I understand that you may think that being kind to others is too much to ask, but how do you think your child feels when he or she sees you engaged in another act of road rage? How do they feel when you are rude to a waiter or cashier when you are dining out? How about all of the domestic abuse in the home? What behavior does all of this violence encourage? Bullying. And do not even get me started on all of these phony alpha males trolling the internet picking on women and children so they can compensate for their tiny dicks. Your child is not safe at school and they are not safe on the internet. So where can they go? You are all they have. But, admit it, you are always too busy. So, they feel abandoned by their teachers and their parents, the ones who are supposed to have their backs. You need to grow up. Stand up for yourselves and others.