There may be something for everyone in the President’s State of the Nation Address, SONA, so I hope the reader does not mind if I list my own Sana. (To nonreaders of the national language, “sana” is a wish word, as in “Sana I win the lottery with one ticket.”)

“Sana” every child grows up with loving parents in a home where he or she feels safe. Children who are loved do well in school and everywhere else, because whatever they do, even when they fail, they are loved and appreciated.

“Sana” every home has running water and everyone gets to eat three times a day. It would be a great plus if they had a garden or yard to plant a fruit tree that will also provide them shade on a hot day and little poetic thoughts when it rains.

“Sana” every child grows up with good friends who stay true and from whom they learn stuff they would otherwise not learn on their own.

“Sana” no child gets to experience being bullied in school or in the neighborhood. Being bullied is no joke to the one being made fun of, even when the bully thinks it’s nothing more than good clean fun.

So why should bullies have all the fun?

From my own experience – no, I was neither bully nor victim – I can say bullies enjoy the sense of power they have over their target. Once Bully has found the one, they will not let go. Bully hides Victim’s shoe, or notebook, or schoolbag. The more Victim pleads or cries, the more Bully enjoys it.

Victim, on the other hand, is usually someone powerless. In our class, she was not proficient in English. Bully was apparently enjoying herself, until she got tired of bullying the same victim over and over again because the rest of us were no longer laughing at her antics. Eventually, she gave up, no one was laughing at her cruelty nor the victim’s plight.

Bullying by making fun of a weakling? Unfortunately, today’s bullies are showing a streak of physical violence, which was not the case when we were in an all-girls’ high school.

How do you stop a bully? Ask Teacher for help? Good luck!