Rosie Nation? "YES or NO"

I've slept on it and taken my best shot at objectivity. The verdict is in: Rosie O'Donnell is the playground bully. Leave political opinions and moral judgements out of it and think about demeanor. Rosie does not discuss. She does not speak in turn and allow the others to explain their viewpoints. Rosie says, "YES or NO!" Rosie barks and blasts her thoughts and does not relent until the receiver is too rattled to respond sensibly, reactions she likes to peddle as cowardice, defeat or unawareness. No. It is simply recovery time. A lapse taken to adapt to someone breaking an assumption of civility, just like the bully who shoves you out of line for the monkey bars. It becomes all about the shove. You fall down, you startle, maybe you push back, maybe not. While you're processing what's just happened, the bully is laughing. They are loving your disorientation and they are rallying others to ridicule your hesitation. And what about those damn monkey bars? The bully never tries to make it across. You do, but it no longer matters. It's all about the shove.

No monkey bars in grown-up land. Now we have issues to decide upon. We line up behind them and wait our turn to share what we think. And the bully's still here, shoving us out of line with a yap gone wild. Humans should give a basic level of respect to each other. Shouting opinions down someone's eustachian tubes is obnoxious and suspicious. (Remember when Rosie said 9/11 was the first time fire melted steel? Um, I believe that's how steel is made.) But it makes great TV. What does that say about us?

So which are you? The bully or the startled kid? Honestly, I think I'm both. Maybe that's normal. I know that whenever I've bullied, I have felt a little sick afterwards. I know it's not right, it's not civil. When I've done it, I've just wanted to be right. It's not important that I am or not, it's just important that I win. But I can say that in my adulthood, bullying is rare. Over the years it has been dwarfed by reason, facts and a genuine curiosity to explore ideas. What? Is that maturity speaking?