What does it MEAN?

What does it mean ...to be mean?  Are we all mean at some time in our life?  Is it normal? What does it mean if it makes us feel good? More and more we're hearing stories about people being mean...not just kids but everybody. This morning there was a story on the Today show about a rather large fellow in London who was ridiculed for dancing... seriously, dancing?  Bullying appears to be the number one "bad deed" in schools these days.  It's been around a very long time. "Sticks and stones will break my bones.............," but it seems that much of this generation has lost its respect...or maybe never had it. Respect is not a inane quality. I think it's definitely an acquired trait and one you foster through example. We're ALL guilty of seeing something different and thinking, "wow" or "really?" but we never really say the words out loud.  Today the filters aren't there....nobody ever put them in place. We can blame the fact the traditional family is waning, two parents must work and therefore family time is limited, values are not reinforced, teachers (who bore the burden for years) have only time for testing to the test and then giving it and God has been hacked from everything because it's not the time or the place. All good excuses but excuses nonetheless. 
A perfect example is the recent basketball game held at Watkins Glen High School last week. Mean personified.  Generations of mean permeated the entire event. This mean couldn't even be disguised as school spirit. Our athletes were amazing.  Everything right about raising kids, teaching respect, student athletics and sportsmanship has been instilled in our kids... That didn't happen accidentally. It's generational in our neck of the woods. When push comes to shove, and it did, our boys were brilliant. Their fight was on the court and they fought hard. Their fight ended there and they were powerful under pressure. Those teenagers exemplified every single quality that had been instilled in them by their families, their teachers and their coaches. They were the recipients of everything mean for four quarters and were the bigger men for leaving it on the court.....even when they were unable to leave.  If it takes a village to raise a child, it means ours is doing a pretty fine job!