Punishing laugh

[Loren Booda]

When an undergraduate, I was laughing with some security guards at my dormitory. The next thing I felt was my skull absorbing the impact of a full punch to my nose from a 6 foot 8 inch, 300 pound basketball player. I stared at him as he said "do you understand"? He and his diminuitive Asian American girlfriend had just entered the dorm while I was laughing manically, but with others, not against anybody. Perhaps he felt ashamed. I was sent to the hospital (with a broken nose and two black eyes) for observation in a deep depression. I managed to earn an "A" in that first summer semester of chemistry. The next year, guess who my dorm guard was? The thug!

Often now when I hear someone laughing my way, I interpret it as mocking - they have impunity to laugh, yet I would be assaulted for similar action. Also, I tend to believe there is no place for athletic scholarships, that essentialy professional sports introduces violence on campus and contributes little to academics.

Have any of you had like experiences, and how do you feel about the "freedom" to ridicule innocents in public, or the benefit of athletic scholarships to the student body as a whole?

[zoobyshoe]

What the guy did to you was just plain wrong. It is also illegal. You could have had him arrested for assault. His assumption that you were laughing at him and his sudden violent reaction is a clear indication that he was severely mentally unstable. You were the innocent party.

Now you're stuck with this memory that makes you suspect that when you encounter laughing people it is directed toward you. I'm sure they are not. It's just a Newtonian kind of illusion: a laughing person ends to continue laughing even when their gaze shifts to something unrelated. Sometimes that unrelated thing will happen to be you. But it's not actually directed at you. So don't concern yourself about it.

Zooby

[Loren Booda]

Thanks greatly, Zooby

[Zero]

Want me to beat him up for you?!? LOL, I learned early and often that violence IS a solution, unfortunately, because it is the only language that bullies understand. Having said that, I would have pressed charges, and had his silly big butt thrown in jail...than kicked his a$$!!

[The_Professional]

Originally posted by Loren Booda
When an undergraduate, I was laughing with some security guards at my dormitory. The next thing I felt was my skull absorbing the impact of a full punch to my nose from a 6 foot 8 inch, 300 pound basketball player. I stared at him as he said "do you understand"? He and his diminuitive Asian American girlfriend had just entered the dorm while I was laughing manically, but with others, not against anybody. Perhaps he felt ashamed. I was sent to the hospital (with a broken nose and two black eyes) for observation in a deep depression. I managed to earn an "A" in that first summer semester of chemistry. The next year, guess who my dorm guard was? The thug!


Did you file a police report and reported the incident to the Dean? did you have any witnesses?

I wouldn't go down like that without fighting back, such as a swift kick in his gonads.