Many years ago, on the Sunday evening of a week-end leave in London - and
prior to catching the midnight train back to where the ship was berthed - a
civilian mate of mine insisted on buying me a beer or ten in one of the pubs
in a bad part of town.  At some point in the evening a group of blokes
started making disparaging comments about my uniform in particular and the
Navy
in general.  I ignored them.  When I left the pub they followed and
continued taunting me.  Full of beer and deserted by common sense, I turned
a corner and immediately backed into the wall.  As they turned the corner I
submitted them to my own torrent of verbal abuse.  The leader - at least
twelve-feet tall and built like a brick dunny! <BWG> - took exception to
some of the things that I said and pushed me in the chest.  My knee made
contact with his groin just a second before my forehead made contact with
his nose.  His friends - failing to see the humour of the situation and
crying "foul!" - set about me, knocking me down and proceeding to put the
boot into my delicate and sensitive body.  I wound up with skinned knuckles,
a broken jaw, a couple of missing teeth, a few cracked ribs, and some great
bruises! :-)

The real folly of my actions was brought home to me when, during the height
of a storm, I was strapped to a table while the ship's "Doc" - who wasn't! -
attempted to pull splintered tooth fragments from my gums with a pair of
tweezers before diagnosing the broken jaw!  (I remember his amazement at
the breadth and depth of my garbled vocabulary!) :-)

Should I have responded to their harassment in the way that I did?  With the
benefit of hindsight, I can honestly say, "No"!   By the same token, were
those guys justified in prodding me to see how I might re-act?  And for no
other purpose than their own perverse amusement!  Again, I'm inclined to say
"No"!  (But - looking back on it - I still chuckle when I think of them
acusing *me* of not fighting fair!)  :-)

And the point of this tale?  There isn't one really!  Other than that both
parties in a disagreement will usually find their cause better served when
they learn to act rather than react to a situation.  :-)

Strike