Put downs

Folks I don’t know why but we humans seem to get enjoyment by putting people down in various and sundry ways. One of these ways is by putting labels on people. Some sage has said that we do this because we want to appear better than they are. That seems to make sense to me.

I clearly remember my younger days when name calling was a favorite way we had to put others down in the estimation of others. I hasten to add that one of the ‘old sayings’ that I believe is totally false is, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

Folks it is my belief that we can be hurt far more deeply by name calling than being hit with a stick, fist or whatever. We even label entire groups of people. How unjust, but we do it. I recall how some of the ‘big boys’ and older men used to inform we younger boys about people of different races, different religions, etc. As I grew older I found out that what they said was not true. They told us these things out of ignorance and superstition. Also they were trying to impress us with their superior knowledge.

Be that as it may we also participated in trying to put others down by name calling. We hung nick names on some kids that must have hurt and offended them. I will name only two. They were ‘Numbskull’ and ‘Few Brains.’ I named these two because they proved us wrong about their intelligence. ‘Few Brains’ became a school teacher and ‘Numbskull held a responsible position for General Motors. So much for our intelligence!

Folks it behooves us all to speak kindly of others. This brings to my mind another ‘old saying.’

"If you can’t say something good about a person or groups of people, don’t say anything!"

This saying I believe!

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