05-11-2012, 09:20 PM
I've never been a bully but I have done really stupid things as a kid that I'd never do now. Most of those things were simple immaturity (like slipping condoms into purses at department stores with friends and we'd laugh thinking when someone tried to buy the purse and the cashier pulled it out in the mandatory search) to a few things I truly regret doing (not bullying or attacking, but still...) I was a very different person at 17 than I was at 14 and was even more different at 22 than 17 and I've changed so much now that I could've never foreseen the person I'd become even when I was 19. This leads me to believe that people can change and mature with age and come to regret things done when they were in high school. I've also read of neurology that agrees in which it says sometimes a person is 25 before their brain fully matures so that they can better reason and handle their emotional impulses as an adult (and as of high school the typical brain is so chaotic that it's a miracle they function at all). And there are people who deeply regret having been a bully when in school (though others never feel shame or regret at it).
All in all, kids are immature and do stupid things (*), but they can change and I don't judge someone who's way older than me by something he did as a kid (or even college for that matter, if they're old enough). I do, however, judge people like Romney by what they've done as an adult, especially in the last few years, and going by that I see a disturbing pattern and lack of regret for (and I believe a cynical exploitation of) youthful "hijinks."
*Just to be clear, I may overlook that someone was obnoxious 20 years ago (assuming they're obviously a better person now), but I still hold that it's bullies that schools should have zero tolerance for (rather than things like Midol), and fully agree 100% with Foamy here:
All in all, kids are immature and do stupid things (*), but they can change and I don't judge someone who's way older than me by something he did as a kid (or even college for that matter, if they're old enough). I do, however, judge people like Romney by what they've done as an adult, especially in the last few years, and going by that I see a disturbing pattern and lack of regret for (and I believe a cynical exploitation of) youthful "hijinks."
*Just to be clear, I may overlook that someone was obnoxious 20 years ago (assuming they're obviously a better person now), but I still hold that it's bullies that schools should have zero tolerance for (rather than things like Midol), and fully agree 100% with Foamy here: