The Partner's Progeny and What About Bullying?

         Shelly Arkon blogs at The Life of a Novice Writer.   She's currently looking forward to an ebook release in the near future and is sharing a first look at the cover along with a hint of what the story is all about.

          Here is a preview of Shelly Arkon's The Partner's Progeny:

Bullies rule … or do they?

For seventeen years, Victoria Sheek has been a paralegal surpervisor at the Law Offices of Pereene, Carr, and Sevino, specializing in injury law. Rumors portray her as a bully. She remains confident that her position will never cease because of close relations to one of the founding partners, Mr. Carr.

Until Mr. Pereene, the head partner, hires Monica Bowman. Smitten with her because of her resemblance to his deceases granddaughter, Melissa, and his memories of her, she can do no wrong.

Which one of the two girls will keep their position at the firm? It takes and unexpected event to decide the outcome of this rivalry.

Shelly’s Bio

Shelly Arkon is the author of Secondhand Shoes

 When Shelly isn’t doing the laundry, cleaning, cooking, chasing grandkids, listening to daughter drama (five of them), or lopping heads of hair at the salon, she’s writing beside her two fur-peeps, Sir Poops and Hair Ball, popping an occasional chocolate while her hubby is flipping through TV channels.

She lives in New Port Richey with her husband and two dogs. She’s also a member of Florida Writer’s Association and Writer’s of Mass Distraction.

What About Bullies?

      Since Shelly brought of the topic of bullying, let me continue with a matter of controversy tied to my ongoing series about violence, gun control, and related issues.  If you're interested in seeing what controversial topics have been offered so far you can go back to the beginning and follow on from there on most Monday posts.  

       In many of the recent cases of violence, follow-up studies have shown the the perpetrators of the violent acts had been loners who had experienced ostracization by their peers and had been targets of bullying.  This seems to be an attempt to find rationalization for the horrible atrocities.   Bullying is certainly a bad thing, but can we come to a sensible conclusion that it can drive someone to acts of violence?  Or is there a deeper issue at play that goes beyond the bullying?

        Bullying has been a hot topic in recent years.  Kids have committed violent acts on others, participated in criminal mischief, or even killed themselves attributing these acts as a response to having been excessively bullied.  No one deserves to be picked on maliciously and certainly not for ongoing stretches of time.   But vicious retaliatory behavior is not justified either.

       When I was young there were bullies and kids who picked on other kids.  Rarely was a big deal made of this behavior.  We were usually told to fight back or tell someone else who could take care of the situation for us.  There was no bully victim mentality.

         Now we are quick to label certain people or groups as victims.  There are many people who cower behind the victim label and use it as a crutch or an excuse.  Media, celebrities, and politicians often set bad examples by looking for scapegoats in people they don't like and sullying reputations in the process.  If this sort of behavior is acceptable in the public arena, kids might see it as the normal reaction toward schoolmates and peers.

         Have we as a society tended to elevate victimhood as a justification for a righteous anger to the excess?    Has being victimized become the excuse for antisocial behavior?   Are parents and school officials paying enough attention to make sure some kids aren't becoming victimized or other kids aren't  bullying others?
   

Related articles

• How schools create bullying
• Modern Problem
• Bullying
• To Those Who Bully Back

Bad Billies Who Were Bullies

 

       The story of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" was one of my favorites when I was a small child.  The term "billy goat" was funny sounding.  Then when you added a silly sounding word like "gruff" to the title you reached the point of absurdity--just the thing to capture a kid's attention.  Round the story out with one nasty troll collecting a toll to cross a bridge and you had a classic tale.

        It seemed odd to me why a goat should be called "billy" or for that matter why a person who lived in a place like the mountains of Appalachia would be called a "hillbilly".   In my earliest years, my main experience with anything referred to as "Billy" was my cousin Billy.

        Cousin Billy was a few years older and I looked up to him not just because he was taller than me, but also because he had some really cool toys.  Since he was older he didn't seem to want to have too much to do with me.  He certainly did not want me touching his toys.  But I accepted that for what it was.  He was diplomatic about the whole situation and I certainly wouldn't call him a bully.

        However, most of the kids I knew who were named Billy came across as bullies.  Actually I only remember two Billies whom I knew when I was young and I don't remember them in a very good way.

        The first one was Billy Lado.  I was probably about five years old at the time.  He was around a year older and lived about a half a block away from my family's house on West 143rd Street in Cleveland, Ohio.  His mother was French--at least that's what my mom said because she had that kind of an accent I guess.

        In my last encounter with Billy Lado, I was visiting him to show off a newly acquired coloring book that my father had bought me at the circus the previous night.  I was especially proud of the picture of the juggler.  We were on his back patio and my coloring book was there on the ground open to the juggling picture which was laying there ready for me to color.  Then, without any warning, Billy stood up and peed on my coloring book. I wailed and ran home to tell my mother.  I don't know what transpired as a result of this, but I do know my mother was livid.  I never hung around with Billy Lado after that.

       The other Billy bully incident came about five years later after we had moved to San Diego.   Billy Blackburn was also about a year older than I and lived a few houses down from ours.  We had a tenuous friendship if one could even say we had any friendship.  I usually tried to avoid him, but there were times when I guess he had no one else to play with and I was his friend for that day--or perhaps victim would be a more apt term.

       It was shortly after the Christmas of 1960.  One of my prized gifts from my parents was a football. I was not particularly interested in sports, but I was proud of my new football.  I made the mistake of showing it off to Billy B.  We played with it for a while.  It was probably one of those days when none of his usual friends were available.  I could tell that he had an eye on my football and his covetousness got the best of him.  I didn't actually see him take it home with him, but I knew he took it and he knew he took it.  My mother made an attempt to intervene through his mother, but to no avail.  I never saw my football again.   The last I ever heard from Billy Blackburn was a phone call where he used words I had never heard before.  I later learned from my mother that they were very bad words that I had better never use.

      I knew a few more Billies after that, but none had much influence.  I also knew some Bills, Wills, and Williams, but they always seemed to be okay.  Maybe it's because Billy is close to sounding like bully and the similarity influences some boys with that name.  I wonder if that's what happened with Billy the Kid?

       All I know for sure is that Billy Lado and Billy Blackburn, if you're out there reading this, you owe me.  I don't want the coloring book replaced or the football back.  I just want to know that you guys turned out okay.  That you had good lives.  That if you got married, you treated your wives right and raised good families.  Maybe you started calling yourselves Bill or William and you were kind and generous to others.  I want to know that people can change for the better.



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