May 3, 2020 3 min read

I remember riding the bus home from middle school when two popular girls sitting cross-armed in the back row decided to take aim at me. Cynthia and Sue. Those were their names. Cynthia was blonde and mean with a pebbly complexion and angry eyebrows. Sue was her taller sidekick with dry, stringy hair that looked like the crisp straws of a garden broom. Neither was particularly smart in school, but they made up for it by picking on other girls and making their lives hell.

I wasn’t in the popular group and didn’t much care to be. I sat on the bus with the boys. They were kids I’d grown up with, climbed trees and caught frogs with, eaten wild plums and puked with, and understood. The mean girls didn’t like that.

One day after drop-off when the bus driver just out of sight, Sue ripped my flute case out of my hands and chucked it over a steep hillside. I watched it plummet in a dusty cloud across rocks and dried weeds until it got snagged in some prickly bushes about a hundred feet down. My hands started to shake. I’d never wanted to hurt another person so much in my life. And I had an older sister, so that’s saying something. I stormed home feeling something I’d never felt before.

“We’re gonna beat you up,” Sue mouthed at me the next morning as Cynthia sat sneering to her right. I felt sick inside. I’d never done anything to them, never spoken a word to either. Never gave them a second thought. My mind raced all day. Why would anyone hate me so much without ever talking to me? There was no answer.

Later that afternoon as the bus driver pulled away from our stop, Cynthia and Sue boxed me in like wolves. It was time. I shook out of my backpack, peeled off my coat and put up my fists.

What happened next doesn’t really matter.

To be honest, I’m not sure I fully remember.

There will always be mean girls. Mean people in life who don’t like you for whatever reason. They might be jealous of what you look like. They may be threatened by what you believe in. And when their frustration bubbles to the surface, they attack. It’s a tired but time-tested tradition. And we’ve all done it.

I love America, and I support conservative ideas. I believe in American exceptionalism. I cherish our flag.

To the Cynthia and Sue inside each of us, the time is now to rise above anger.

If we’re truly stronger than hate, we owe it to the next generation to prove it.

Wendy Bell can be heard on 1020AM KDKA, Weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. KDKA Radio can also be heard through the RADIO.COM App. Follow Wendy on Facebook and Instagram @WendyBellRadio and on Twitter @WendyBellPgh.