No Balls Left in America

There have been a few things in the last month that lead me to say - there are no balls left in America. One woman who I was caddying for a few weeks ago was telling me about a soccer team her son was playing on. One particular incident during their last soccer game made me think about the difference in generations becoming even more vast. Her son was being bullied by the "team bully" and did nothing to counteract his behavior, which I might add is a recurring thing with this kid. Another example is something I saw on CNN today about Hilary Duff and Wanda Sykes sponsoring a public service announcement pertaining to people using the word "gay" when referring to something that might be dumb or stupid. 

What happened to the day when kids were bullied around and had to stand up for themselves to gain respect on the playground? I have even heard of freshman in high school having to put their noses on pennies on the ground and race other freshman down a hallway, get hit with D size batteries as hazing, or have to face other kinds of adversity making them stronger people in the long run. When you get knocked down, get back up, don't go cry to your mom, defend yourself. These incidents make me think just how different it is to grow up today than even ten years ago and even more dramatic differences from twenty years ago. The hazing that went on, although some things are out of hand such as teabagging, is a form of initiation. The bully on your soccer team is a big sissy anyway, only picking on kids because he is self-conscious himself. 

As for the public service announcements Hilary and Wanda are promoting, I'm not promoting gay bashing here, don't get me wrong, but isn't this a little extreme? Why don't we put public service announcements out there about kids not calling other kids fat, dumb, republican, democrat, emo, hipster, etc.? One is going to face adversity in whatever social group they associate with and if they can't handle it then don't make it public or find another association. What happened to the old saying - sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me? Americans need to grow some balls and quit being such a bunch of sissies.