on second thought

Sports Museum launches ‘Boston vs. Bullies’ initiative

By Kevin Paul Dupont

Globe Staff / November 3, 2012

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“Hey, you can laugh at it all these years later. I had to wear these goofy-looking eyeglasses under my helmet, too, because I had vision stuff — one eye was way stronger than the other. I look at those pictures now and laugh, but hey, I wasn’t laughing then.

“That’s why I think this Boston vs. Bullies thing is awesome. Kids need to know it’s not right.’’

To deal with the hurt at the time, recalled Buchanan, he simply went along with it, painfully, “laughed it off as good-spirited’’ teasing. Parent and teacher awareness, overall sensitivity to the subject of bullying, was minimal then. There were no DVDs, no facilitator’s guides. The two-step coping mechanism was: 1. grin; 2. bear it.

“That’s not what I’d tell a kid today,’’ said Buchanan, a sales account manager for Beckman Coulter, a medical-device company, when he’s not playing for the Cannons or the Philadelphia Wings. “What it comes down to, really, is that you have to stand up for yourself. Not physically, because that usually doesn’t end well. But you have to tell kids to back off, or ask an adult — maybe a teacher or parent — to help you make that case.’’

It’s 2012, and the Sports Museum is aiming to take a bite out of the age-old game of bullying.

It is a task both daunting and noble. Perhaps Boston yet again proves to be a world leader.

Ideally, the Sports Museum one day will be able to build one more display case, hang one more picture, that of a triumph over a foe made up of faces and enablers that lasted through millennia. Let us all agree that it’s a dynasty that needs to end.

For more information on the Sports Museum’s efforts to end bullying, visit bostonvsbullies.org. Kevin Paul Dupont’s ‘‘On Second Thought’’ appears on Page 2 of the Sunday Globe Sports section. He can be reached at dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.