Food for thought at family gathering

“”Oh yeah,” I retorted, “Did you know there is a Bureau of Lost Socks? I can throw out obscure facts with the best of them.”
Gary replied with, “I got my information from 20/20.”
“And you believe that? I got mine from the internet.”
Gary harumphed and so did I. Then we laughed at the absurdity of our conversation. Gary is my second cousin, I think. I can trace our lineage but am unsure as to the correct nomenclature of our relationship. At any rate, we are related.
We were at his sister’s house for a late evening get together. We do this every couple of years since we reconnected through a genealogy project of mine.
The best story of the evening came from Carol. I can’t tell you how the two of us are related either. Her husband, Dick, is a retired teacher who is now a tutor. Many of his students are not native to this country. One of them told Dick that he was being harassed at school.
Instead of brushing it off or telling the student to ignore the bullies Dick immediately took the student to see the principal. The principal was not in his office so they talked to the second in command. This individual took charge and told them that kind of behavior was not to be tolerated. As far as I understand, that took care of the problem.
I was proud that Dick and I were related. He let that child know that there were adults around to protect him. I thought it was about time that I heard about adults acting like adults. If more people reacted like Dick did then maybe there wouldn’t be so many stories in the news about kids committing suicide because they were tired of being bullied.
Adults should protect children, not ignore problems. Adults should teach compassion instead of intolerance. Parents should be grown up enough to realize that teaching children how to behave doesn’t stop when the children enter school.
The sad thing is that Dick seems to be the exception. I believe with all my heart that most people want to love and protect children. But there are so many stories in the news and other media about kids being bullied. There is also the memory of the one summer I was working in the flower bed and there were two little girls across the street. One very matter of factly told the other one that her dad referred to her as a term that should be reserved for female dogs. I cringed. Children should not be talked to that way.
I did nothing, believing that anything I would have said would have only made things worse. Does that make me part of the problem?
I’m not sure.  All I know is that I have family who makes me proud to be related to them. That and that the Bureau of Lost Socks came into being during the Civil War as the Bureau of Socks.[[In-content Ad]]