When I was in 6th grade three boys attacked me

[Generic Other]

"For thinking you are so smart," the kid said. "You need to be taught a lesson." So three boys pushed a scrawny girl into the grass and shoved handfuls of dirt down my throat. Until I nearly choked, kicking and crying. I will always remember. The smell of earth like garlic on my tongue, the way dirt turns to mud deep in your throat, how it feels to be put in your place.

Goddamn it, Mitt Romney, how dare you say you forget.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Goes to show what is important to Willard

[KurtNYC]

28. Willard Scissorhands remembers the incident

how else could he remember:

"I tell you I certainly don't believe that I ... thought the fella was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds"

[liberalmuse]

2. Poor baby. I'm so sorry!

That is a horrible story, and I'm so sorry that that fucker Mitt just smooshed it in yours and everyone's face who has ever been bullied. You are not alone, so always remember that. Truth is, well more than half of us have been bullied. About a quarter watched, complacent, terrified that they would come after them if they spoke their minds. The rest enjoyed and even partially participated in the spectacle because it made them feel better about themselves. Yeah - now we know that bully's conveniently forget the life-changing shit they did to us. Good for them. Fuck you, Mitt, you lying, self-entitled piece of shit.

[Rittermeister]

3. Very sorry to hear that

I was fat, nerdy, and upper-middle class at a very blue collar school. Got to kiss the ground more than a few times.

[DearAbby]

4. I remember walking home from school

with my sister, who is a lesbian. Cars of students going by Shouting horrible things at us. Having half filled cups of soda thrown at us. This was back in the 70's. I most certainly remember that.

Also remember a time my sister and I were walking home. A group of girls walking behind us, were provoking my sister into a fight. When I had enough. I hit the leader of the group. I remember that, I remember her name, to this day. I also remember the fear in my sister's face. I remember my sister coming with my Mother, to pull me off this girl.

[Generic Other]

5. No one forgets when things like this happen to them

Throwing soda at you out of cars. No doubt the respectable kids from good homes.

Thanks for sharing your story. I think many of us remember what Romney has claimed to have forgotten.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. The thing is, you were the victims of bullying

Romney, on the other hand, was the aggressor in his case, and he is apparently someone who lacks a conscience. So it wouldn't surprise me if he actually didn't remember the incident.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. I am so sorry this happened to you. I share your sentiments toward

that lying motherfucker Romney.

[jtuck004]

8. The knife to the throat was a particular favorite of mine, out of all of them.

After the kid walked off teacher suggested I take an alternate route in the future. Wasn't much they could do.

[Generic Other]

9. Those memories don't go away

They harden you maybe. Make you wary.

Sorry to hear how powerless you were. Even the adults let you down.

[jtuck004]

20. It was kind of a rough school in OKC <G> But I lived, and fared better than the black kids

they started busing in. Freakin' white parents egging their kids on to fight, kids surrounding buses, police having to show up after the black kids all ran into the nearby Dairy Queen when a mob went after them.

I spoke to an old classmate a couple years ago, brought that up. "Oh, that's all in the past" she said. Not for the kids it happened to, I bet.

Maybe it's a consequence of having grown up more or less on my own and outside of any damn group I wasn't forced to join (mom got sick when I was 6, died when I was 9 - Dad got remarried a couple years later), but I never could understand why they hated those kids so much. Still don't, really. I am still amazed, after 50 years, watching people resort to hate against each other, instead of working to help themselves against their real opponenets.

[aquart]

10. I remember a foot stuck out to trip me in the cafeteria.

And kids standing on the lunchroom tables cheering it.

I keep thinking I must have imagined that. And the guidance counselor saying "They're jealous because you have clear skin." When my family moved to the dividing line between two schools I transferred without blinking.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. This happened near my home last weekend:

Can you imagine one of these boys running for president in 40 years? Maybe they can if they're Republicans:

Boy, 11, claims sex attack at birthday party

VERNON - An 11-year-old boy told sheriff's deputies he was held down by a group of boys at a slumber party and sodomized, and his parents have called for the boy's former friends and classmates to be criminally charged.

Detectives spent most of the day Monday interviewing the eight children accused of being involved in the incident that happened at a birthday celebration sleepover Friday night and into Saturday.

Stewart said investigators are still piecing together what happened, including trying to figure out what object was used in the attack. Trumbull County Children Services also is investigating.

<snip>

The mother said she noticed permanent marker on the boy's face and arms. Her son told her that during the night, the other boys at the party held him down and sodomized him, the report states. He said he was in pain and was taken to Trumbull Memorial Hospital's emergency room. He was then sent to Akron Children's Hospital at Boardman, reports state.

The boy told deputies he was awakened at about 3 a.m. Saturday to seven boys holding him down and the eighth boy sodomized him. He told deputies he wanted to tell the parents at the home but couldn't find their bedroom. He said he decided to stay away from the other boys until his mother came to pick him up.

He also told deputies he was unaware he had permanent marker drawn on him.

The markings, made on the boy's arms, leg and back, include one that points an arrow to the boys buttocks.

Continued here:
http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/571485/Boy--11--claims-sex-attack-at-birthday-party.html?nav=5021

hopefully, these "friends" will not be able to "forget" what they did.

On edit:
I'm making this an OP.

[AverageJoe90]

12. I'm terribly sorry.

I'm so sorry those fucking little chauvinistic brats did that to you.....It's not a word I ever throw around lightly, given how badly the term IS overused, but I think it fits in this case.

[Generic Other]

13. It isn't so much the individual stories I keep reading here at DU

as the fact that Romney's story brought all those memories back from so long in the past. For him it was all just fun and games. He could go on to live a charmed life, never look back, no regrets, good show old sport...

I don't want this man to be president. I didn't know how much until today.

[AndyTiedye]

19. Dubya Was a Bully Too

This was from his Yale yearbook:

[AverageJoe90]

26. Can't really blame you.

I was fortunate enough not to be bullied......though family life wasn't always rosy, if you get the message.....=(

[iemitsu]

14. thank you generic for sharing your awful experience.

you speak for all of us who have been picked on when you curse mitt's memory loss.
i'd like to add my own, fuck you mitt romney to this thread.

[icarusxat]

15. you and I have both encountered the Mitt

in various ways ways. The cure is to tell everyone, and never get Mitted without raising hell!

[freshwest]

16. There are a lot of stories out there. Thanks for telling yours. Romney should be in jail, and

So should the boys that did that to you. I've known a lot of people who have been bullied, people have attacked me physically but I was luckier than you. It never leaves, it's never forgotten and it's very hard to share these things.

[Chorophyll]

17. My 8th grade bully "forgot" too.

They all forget. But we don't, do we. We're like people who've been in a war.

I'll remember for you too.

[Generic Other]

22. You're right

PTSD. For every one who forgets, there are ten who remember.

[Chorophyll]

27. Yup. The one good thing is that

bullying is finally being taken seriously as an issue. I don't know if the adults will ever get it quite right in terms of how we make it stop, but at least it's out there. No one used to talk about domestic violence, either.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. My tormentors also forgot

they all do.

To them it was not important

[Generic Other]

24. I am acquainted with some of your tormentors

Last edited Fri May 11, 2012, 08:57 AM - Edit history (1)

Sorry Nadin. You of all people know.

[MrScorpio]

21. I was routinely harassed in elementary school for having light skin

Most of the time they'd back down once it looked as if I was going to fight back because I wasn't small or scrawny. But I refused to be violent against someone else.

One day that changed as I was walking home. It was harassment as usual, but this time one of them kicked me from behind. That was the first time that my rage took over. I turned around, dropped my books and leaped on the boy who kicked me. As I wrapped both of my hands around his throat, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do most, either strangle him to death or smash his skull against the pavement. And I remember quite distinctly that I was very happy when I decided that it would be a great idea to see his brains splattered all over the sidewalk... But I never got the chance to because I was pulled off of him at just that moment.

That was the first time that I lost my temper. A temper that made me easily think of murder at a young age. And I was ashamed of myself for it.

That's why I hate bullies, not because of what they've done to me, but because they've made me ashamed at myself.

I can never think that it's a good thing to bully another human being, to make them feel ashamed of oneself.

It's one of the worst things that one person can do to another.

[Generic Other]

23. You had no reason to feel shame

And others had reason to treat you with more respect. Sometimes the bullies have to learn the hard way.

[RZM]

25. Wow. It's interesting remembering this stuff. I haven't thought about it in years

Though I've always thought of myself as somebody who was bullied, the more think back, the more I remember I really wasn't, because the couple times I stood up it went a pretty long way.

I remember in grade school being attacked once and running away crying. Now that I think about it, that only encouraged them. They constantly tormented me until we left for different junior highs.

A couple years later I had somebody who kept picking on me during a summer swimming camp at a lake. Towards the end I picked him up and threw him in the water. I remember that the girls laughed at him for that and afterwards he never bothered me.

In high school I was made fun of a lot, but never really physically bullied.

Finally in college, I remember wrestling in the dorm hallway with a guy who was cracking jokes at me. I won the match and after that, we were pretty much friends.

A little bit of resistance can go a long way. It's too bad we never realize that until we're well into adulthood.

[yodermon]

29. The only plausible explanation for why he "forgot" is that he did such things so often that this

particular event is indistinct for him.