...Nice story Thomas; glad I clicked over from MFile; it's hard to make a living as a writer but you can make a difference...

Wow. It doesn't get any clearer than that. Well done, Thomas...

here is another organization geared to the awareness of the ramifications of bullying:  http://www.kindnessabovemalice.org/

How did I miss this?  Great, hard hitting piece, Thomas.  It all starts at home and comes for the parents.  In a lot of the cases, it's not the child who needs educating but the parent. Nice touch with the donation, Thomas.  I'll check out the link!!

Thank you all for your comments. I donated $115 to the It Gets Better Project in 3 installments, so 3 school libraries will receive their book: Nutley high school in NJ (mine), St. Thomas More in Baton Rouge (my friend Andre du Broc's) and North Garland, Texas high for a woman who wrote a confessional story apologizing for bullying on Twitter... but I can't find her name. 

I was bullied a great deal at school and not once did any teacher who saw attempt to intervene. The truth is too ugly, so people tend to gloss over it.  Great story, it goes deeps. Says a lot. But remember also that there are those who bully for the sheer pleasure of seeing another human being break. 

yes, that is how it happens... good job. Bill Baber

Slap.

Wow. You nailed that one very precisely. Powerful writing.

[...] “Faggot,” by Thomas Pluck at Shotgun Honey. [...]

This is so well done. Makes me wonder about the bullies I know growing up. One of them definitely had a jackass for a father. 

Short and powerful, Thomas. Thanks for all you do to help others.

A smashing kick back!

Brilliant!

Is it still like this, I wonder?  This could have happened in any of my schools from elementary to high school.  I can picture this all too easily as a result.  First person is an interesting, and effective, choice too.

Powerful. Well done, Mr. Pluck.

Heart-breaking. I have a couple of friends who endured bullying from parents and decades after leaving home, they're still dealing with the wreckage. It has shaped and warped their lives in ways that have made it hard for them to achieve their full potential. 

I'm in complete agreement with you, Thomas. I got the parental indictmenr clearly. Sorry I wasn't clear about that agreement in my comment. 

In no way do I excuse the narrator's behavior. If anything, I meant to indict the parents for teaching and reinforcing bullying behavior. It is something I see a lot in bullying incidents. They want to be ashamed of their kid, but they are still sort of proud that their kid came out on top. Part of how we worship success, but absolve how one gets there.

The cycles here are all too true. Physical assault knocks the bully's feet off the table and he is given the "proper" terminology by dear old Dad. Still dosen't excuse the behavior. And don't think it stops after high school. One of the four major influences in my life was a guy named Max. He taught me what class is all about. My wife loved the man. He commited suicide after someone outed him at work and, in the Sixties, the closet was the only safe place for gays. Lost his job, couldn't get another. grew morose, killed himself. The Sixties were all about peace, love and togetherness -- for some. But the bullies werre there all the same. Pisses me off they are allowed to live, but Max wasn't.

Every kid with an xbox is a jerk.

Great story, man. Yeah, being a kid sucks. Every day I consider my job as a dad to help my kid in minimizing how much suckage there is. Thanks for writing this.

Thank you for this.

Bullies are cowards. They did not come down the chute that way. Someone either bullied them or taught them to hate and bully. Many people who bully gays are frightened by their own sexual feelings and fantasies. Some are just afraid of "different".

Got your point, obviously, but there is a line that gets crossed at some point between that being an "explanation" for bullying behavior and an "excuse" for it.

I actually told one of my stories about a year and a half ago here-  http://jasummerell.com/2010/06/24/youre-plastic-cold-shiny-hard-plastic/ Thanks for doing this. All of it.

OK, Pluck. I know bullying. You can read my own memories on the subject here: http://danielboshea.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/from-little-big-man-to-big-little-man-and-the-lessons-learned/ But I wanted to link from the comment box, just to cost you five bucks. Hey, I'll double your offer. For every comment I get over at my joint, I'll send along five bucks as well. You are a good man sir. And a good writer.

[...] 4, 2012 by Dan O'Shea Over at Shotgun Honey, Thomas Pluck has a wrenching short vignette on bullying.  It’s short – go give it a [...]

Interesting.  The issue of bullying is related to some thoughts I've been having lately about society in general.  As I watch democrats plea for some kind of compassion for the masses and republicans spit on anyone who thinks compassion is a good idea, I realize that evolution works two ways; There is physical evolution (strength, or, as I call it, anti-intellectual), and there is intellectual evolution.  The problem is this: Anti-intellectual evolution, by having strength in the empirical sense, will always beat out intellectual evolution.  If we were to become a compassionate species, there would be no more wars.  Science would dedicate itself to curing all diseases.  Pretty soon, the world would be way too crowded.  Thus, as sad as it is, nature will always give the brutes in this world the right of way.  That said, any time we hear of a school shooting, instead of blaming the parents of the kids who did the shooting, or worse, blaming Marilyn (s.p.) Manson or some other element of pop culture, let's blame the bullies at the school.  They are ALWAYS responsible for these bloody retaliations-- Mr. Yuppie: Wah! My son got shot by a freak in black combat boots! Mr. Sensible: Was your son an asshole jock-itchin' bully? Mr. Yuppie: Of course.  I taught him to be leader of the pack. Mr. Sensible: Good.  Now both of you have learned a lesson.

Without opening the whole "nature vs. nurture" debate, you've hit the nail on the head succinctly here, Thomas.  Powerful story.

This made me cry. 

You can donate to gay teen suicide prevention and anti-bullying programs here:  https://secure.itgetsbetterproject.com/page/contribute?source=actioncenter I'll donate $5 for every comment with your thoughts and experience on bullying, left by the end of the week (Sunday)

Like father like son.  Short and not very sweet.  Thanks.