Consequences...

     John Hartwick posted a blog recently about bullying and we were up at "The Office" last night discussing it...


    I won't go into any details of the conversation (some of which are a little hazy anyway) but it did leave me with one word in my head this morning... consequences (oh no...here comes the "back in my day" rant).

    Teachers have lost any power over the students and quite often seemingly disinterested and overworked parents leave the disciplining of their children to various nannies they may or may not even know. Our so-called "justice" system is a joke and we've given our heroin addicts clean, safe places to shoot up an illegal drug but God forbid you fire up a butt within ten feet of a doorway... but enough of that.

    The the word consequences also made me think of a couple of stories my Dad told me. The first was when he was a kid, sometimes a complete stranger would clout you in the back of the head while you were walking down the street and simply say, "Ya dumb kid." I laugh every time I think of it--try doing that now.

    The other classic is about one of his best friends named Bill Corns...

 

    My Dad is middle front and Bill is the the big dude on the left in the back row...

     We've all been there. You're stopped at a red light and when it turns to green you hesitate for 1/1000th of a second and some knob behind you honks his horn (Huh, turns out "Honk if you're a Knob actually has a dual meaning). Not just a "bee beep" reminder either, an obnoxious, full on, lean into it blast. Well somebody had done this to Bill one day... big mistake. Dad said Bill threw it into park, got out, went to the guy in the car behind him and punched his lights out while he was still sitting in his seat. He ended up spending six months in jail for assault and paying a $1500 fine (in the days you could buy a house for five grand). When he got out of jail Dad asked him if he would do it again and Bill said, "In a heartbeat." 

    You can bet your life that whoever the guy was that honked at Bill either never did it again recalling the pummeling he took, or really thought twice before he did. I'm thinking he may have had his horn disconnected-- remembering the consequences.