Imagine two kids fighting on the playground. They’ve been shoving each other, blocking each other’s toys, arguing over who gets to use the slide, and threatening to start another fight every recess. One kid (the Iranian) is clearly the bigger bully. The other keeps getting dragged into the scuffle and swinging back.
Meanwhile, other kids on the playground are watching the fights, hoping the bully finally gets what’s coming to him. But they get bumped, shoved, and hit by stray punches. The bully doesn’t care who else gets hurt. And he doesn’t care how much damage he’s done to the school’s playground – and any other playground. Eventually, a teacher has to step in before someone gets seriously injured.
Between the three of them (and some others), they come up with a temporary deal to get along and not cause chaos and damage to the playground and school, while they work on something more permanent. It’s unclear if the bully will actually do what’s asked of him but it’s a start.
Here’s the agreement:
- Stop fighting. Right now.
- No more hitting, kicking, threatening, or starting new arguments.
- Stay out of each other’s business.
- One kid has to stop blocking the other kid’s access to the playground.
- The other kid has to let everyone use the path through his part of the playground again.
- The teacher promises to give back some toys that were taken away from the bully and stop some of the punishments so that the bully isn’t constantly angry and looking for a fight.
- The bully who keeps collecting chemistry sets promises not to build a giant volcano that could blow up the whole school.
- Everyone agrees to spend the next 60 days working out the details instead of punching each other.
- While they talk, nobody is allowed to make things worse.
And then comes the really surprising part: The teacher gets the kid being bullied (and some of his friends) to agree to give the bully a mountain of candy, toys, new building blocks, and playground supplies to replace what was lost.
So…after one of the world’s biggest geopolitical and religious fights, the official solution appears to be: “Now shake hands, stop throwing things, give back some stuff, and let’s all pretend we’re going to get along this time.”
The final report card on whether that works is yet to be seen.
For those of you who want to read the adult version of the agreement, click here [1].