Everyone deserves an opportunity to share their opinions
Walking home from the third grade one day, I got into a scuffle with another kid. It happened right in front of my family’s home, so Mom saw everything from the front window. She told my sister to run out and tell me, “Don’t. Stop.”
My sister bounded down the front steps and shoved her way through the gathering crowd and said, “Hey! Mom said, ‘Don’t stop!’”
I looked at her quizzically and thought, “Mom wants me to keep fighting?” So I threw another hay-maker and got a bloody one back, and a moment later there was Mom frantically separating us. As she sent my opponent home (thank God, because he was winning), she asked, “Didn’t you hear what I told your sister?”
“Yeah,” I protested. “You said ‘Don’t stop.’” Mom shook her head, “No, I said ‘Don’t! Stop!’”
