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Oklahoma Politician Wants To Tax Violent Video Games
dotarray writes "According to an Oklahoma politician, video games help cause many problems affecting the youth of today, but they can also help solve those same problems. Representative William Fourkiller, a Democrat, has proposed a 1% tax on every video game sold which has a Teen, Mature or Adults Only rating. He explains that half of the money would go towards helping to get kids playing outside, while the other half would be placed into a bullying prevention fund."
I suggest a conditional tax.
1% of total politician networth every time they say something stupid. The deficit would turn to a surplus in a week, especially now during campaign season.
Bullying is not something that can be solved by just money. Give the schools/teachers enough rights to be able to deal with the problematic children, expect them to do so and hold them responsible when they don't.
Well, before we do that, we need to decide that we are not going to support the current bullying system.
I can think of dozens of different people who have all been punished for eventually standing up for themselves after getting bullied for months. Myself included. I had a bully sitting behind me in 9th grade who would hurl insults at me all the time, thump me in the back of the head, punch me from behind, and generally make me miserable all year long. Finally one day toward the end of the year, after he had done something again I turned around and told him to lay off. He hit me in the eye with a pencil. That was the last straw. I jumped out of my seat and started hitting him. He probably was a foot taller than me and outweighed me by half, but I didn't concern myself with that. The teacher came running it and broke us up. I was sent to the principal's office, my mother was called. She told them how I had been coming home with stories every day about how this kid was picking on me and that she was glad I finally stood up for myself. They gave me swats and sent me back to class where I had to put up with his crap, still sitting right behind me, for the rest of the year.
But I learned a valuable lesson. The authority is on the side of the bullies, so just let them walk all over you, or you will be punished.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
But I learned a valuable lesson. The authority is on the side of the bullies, so just let them walk all over you, or you will be punished.
Actually, you learned the lesson most kids (including myself long ago) learn about the school system: the authorities don't give a crap what goes on so long as they don't have to do anything about it.
I had a situation with much the same problem as you - I was "in a fight" and didn't even throw a punch, just backed against a wall and tried to keep my face covered. The result was that we both got the mandatory 3-day inschool suspension for "fighting." The difference? The kid who bullied me spent more time in suspension than he did in class. He regularly targeted the kids with the best grades, because he knew being in class actually mattered to us. I got left out of the advanced honors science class the next year, because the asshole teacher who ran it had a "no kid allowed in my advanced class who has a fighting demerit on their record" policy.
I learned the hard way too what schools really are, and any respect I have for teachers (or worse, school administrators, and even worse, the sort of right wing retards who came up with "zero tolerance and mandatory punishment" policies) has been tempered by that experience ever since.