I won't be bullied

Mark DeLap
Posted 9/22/21

Mark DeLap weekly column

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

I won't be bullied

Posted

I don’t like bullies. I don’t like the way they throw their weight around to manipulate those who can’t fight back and I have no time for them when they scream louder than anyone else when they can’t get their way.

We have, as journalists, the right to publish. That comes with a very awe-inspiring responsibility. We tell the stories that 100 years from now our great grandchildren will read when they go to our archives. We use our best judgment when it comes to covering events that shape our lives.

Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we make an impassioned plea to be heard when nobody is hearing us. And those are the pleas that I believe are the most precious.

It’s different though, when everyone has heard your voice and you have a handful of followers that have encouraged you to scream louder.

Maybe it’s not that the people “haven’t” heard your voice… it’s simply that they don’t agree with it. So automatically you take it to the press to make it seem like you have more of a following than you really have. You want people to endorse your voice and you think the power of the press will help to do that.

Again, it may not be the voice they are taking issue with as much as it may be the issue itself.

All I know is that I won’t let you use me to “stir your pot.” Now, it’s not that I do or do not disagree with you, it’s just that, well… you criticize and cajole and point out flaws in everything. You are quick to not only shout the problems from the roof tops but you offer no solution to the problems you are screaming about.

Someone said, “I just wish journalists would print more truth in this country.” The problem is not that the people don’t know the truth. We know the truth. Us screaming it louder won’t change that. What we need is justice.

Our country has been swindled. I am convinced of that. Everybody and their mother prints “evidence” every day and yet nothing changes. The Epsteins of the world go untouched. The crooked politicians continue to laugh all the way to the bank. We continue to pay $55 for a piece of plywood and almost $4 a gallon for gas.

We don’t need to scream louder. We don’t need any more evidence. We don’t need to continue to stir pots and cause the blood to boil in everyone we talk to. We need solutions. We need someone who knows something about the judicial system in this country to stand their ground rather than taking the easy road by taking a payoff.

If you have a solution and you’re willing to go to a court of law to prosecute, then for gosh sakes… DO IT. You are not going to win this war with your memes or your opinions or your hearsay or your rumors. You can’t even win this war in the unlikely chance that you can gain a majority. Obviously that didn’t work.

It's time to think. It’s time to perhaps take a biblical approach and be quick to think and slow to speak.

There’s a bully down at the school yard beating kids with a baseball bat. Let’s talk about him behind his back. Let’s tell everyone we know what he’s done and what he’s capable of. Let’s scream and make signs, “down with the bully.” Let’s get the newspaper and the radio and the television stations to tell everything we know. Let’s call him names. Let’s get a crowd good and mad. Let’s go after the baseball bat manufacturer. LETS…  Lets… Lets.

And the bully just keeps on bullying. Because he can. Words, evidence, screaming, crying, pleading, stirring other people’s pots. Those things won’t hurt him. Find me a person who can go down and take the take the bat away from the bully.

You want me to stir your pot with my words? You just want someone else to be able to take the bat because you are not strong enough or smart enough to do it.

Sorry. Tough love. There is a lot to do in this country. We don’t have time to read memes and manifestos and watch endless hours of a media who can diagnose the problem but cannot prescribe a prescription.