The Bully Pen

By James Foley

This book was written to bring to light the catastrophic damage that bulling can cause. It was written for people of all ages, races, creeds, and sexual orientations.

Bullying has no boundaries; it is blind and doesn't care about the physical, emotional, and potentially fatal damage it can inflict. Those of you out there who bully others are the weakest and most cruel among us. Those who bully have no conscience or moral fabric.

The Bully Pen was created to illicit a response from reasonable and loving people! It was made to make you think about the causes and effects of bullying.

Every day, all of us see bulling in one form or another! We just don't recognize it! We see it in our schools, on the buses, in our workplace, in our homes, and we see it virtually everywhere.

If my words and this book are going to have an impact and meaning, then you must not only read it but share it with everyone around you. We can stop bullying. This is an epidemic that we can eradicate from society; it just takes each of us to do it!

We can do this one person at a time. We have the ability to change; each of us can influence our families, friends, and even our communities. The danger of bullying is overwhelming!

We have enough hatred in our world. We can all do better. God is on our side if we just look to him again. This book is a wake-up call to all of us to teach our kids love (over hate), respect, peace, and most of all, kindness. This is what my grandchildren would want, and if Patrick Kholmann was reading this, I'm sure he would want the same thing too!

God bless you and God bless America!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889434726

James Foley

James Foley is a founding member of the Radical Independence Campaign. He is that author of Yes: The Radical Case for Scottish Independence (Pluto, 2014).

Book preview

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The Bully Pen

James Foley

ISBN 979-8-88943-471-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88943-472-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by James Foley

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Fat Boy: How I Was Bullied

Big Kids, Little Kid

Why Me?

Rejection

Are You Stupid or Something?

I'll Get Even

Laugh, Laugh, Laugh

Wear a Mask

Homeless

Stu…Stu…Stu…Stuttering

Hairy Legs

Four Eyes

Roger the Rug

Pickles

Hazing

What Teachers Say

What If?

Friends?

Tragedy of Bullying

The Graveyard

Thugs

Kill the Jew

Disfigured

Suicide

I Won't Go

Forgiveness

Patrick's Story

Epilogue

About the Author

To the four loves of my life, my grandchildren—Regan, McKenna, Connor, and Avery. You make me proud every day, and you inspired me to write this book on behalf of all children and, indeed, all people who are being bullied or who are bullies. Bullying is never good for anyone, and I hope that my grandchildren or any other children are not subjected to this extremely harmful behavior. Far too many people, young and old, are bullied every day. Bullying comes in many forms: physical, verbal, threatening, psychological, and emotional. The effects of bullying are and will continue to be catastrophic until we put a stop to it.

This book might never have been completed without a tragedy having taken place. A young man, Patrick Kohlmann, had a steadfast love of people and a vehement desire to put an end to bullying. He died unexpectedly at the age of twenty. I attended his celebration of life and saw the outpouring of love for him. Thank you, Patrick, for it is because of you that I decided to finish this book on behalf of all people being bullied.

In this book, it is my intention to bring to light lifetime-lasting effects that bullying has on its victims. We must all educate ourselves and recognize when bullying is occurring. What we as grandparents, parents, teachers, teacher's aides, social workers, counselors, and lay people do may very well save someone's life. It's not funny, it's not cool, and it certainly isn't an acceptable behavior in any realm. So let's move on and see what bullying is and how we can stop it!

Thank you, Regan, McKenna, Connor, Avery, and Patrick.

Preface

It is my sincere hope that this book of scenarios on bullying will give each of you food for thought. If the dangers that bullying can cause have been brought into focus and clarity, then my purpose has been accomplished. If this book saves just one life, then all the time and effort put into it is worth it. Many of the stories depicted in this book are factual from people I have known in the past and in the present. The names have been changed but not the circumstances involved.

The final scenario in this book is one that I am most proud of because it deals with my opening scenario and how things ended. My friend Jim will always be my close and dear friend. It took a strong man to apologize and finally understand the hurt his words and actions were causing. I'm very grateful and proud of him for that. To Maxine and Frank, your intervention was instrumental in bringing a wonderful resolution to what could have been a disaster.

To my wife, Jan, your understanding and caring when I was down and depressed can't be overstated. I love you for just being you; that is what sets you apart. You are a big part of this book because of your compassion and understanding when I was so mad. It took me a while to finally finish this book, but with the help of God, it will reach the hands of many of you so that a lot of needless deaths and injuries can be avoided!

To my children and grandchildren, you are my inspiration to write this book. The things that happened to you were what got me thinking about how, by doing this, so many other people might be helped. So papa thanks you from the bottom of his heart because without you, this would not be possible.

May God bless all of you, and may this book inspire you to put a stop to bullying once and for all.

Since I first wrote this, we have suffered through a crisis called COVID-19, an epidemic of epic proportions. This virus has killed millions of people around the world. It nearly killed me in February 2021. I pray for the families affected by this terrible virus. God bless us all. This is the wish of the author of this book and his family.

Now, it's time to read this book, learn from it, and make changes that will benefit us all.

Fat Boy: How I Was Bullied

Iam the author of this book, and this is my personal story on how I was bullied. I am now seventy-two years old, and I stand five feet, ten inches tall, and I weigh a little over 240 pounds. I've lost forty pounds since I started writing this book! I possess what is referred to as a beer belly, and it's an accurate term. I didn't always have this big gut; in fact, as a teenager and young man, I was active in all kinds of sports and weighed between 145 pounds and 160 pounds. I was in great shape. I was the quarterback of our high school football team, was cocaptain of our baseball team, and played basketball on an intramural level. I even went to college and earned my bachelor of science degree in physical education. So what went wrong? How did this skinny kid get so fat? The answer is a lot of things.

First, I never used my college degree; instead, I became a police officer, which would be