An obituary that is satirical but food for thought

[razz]

I was forwarded this obituary as a version in the Times but Snopes expanded a correction attributing the actual author, Lori Borgman
http://www.loriborgman.com/1998/03/1...-common-sense/

Do you agree with Lori?

[SteveinMN]

I don't. My experience is that most organizations (companies, societies, etc.) create rules in reaction to participants who do not use common sense or common decency and because of leaders who are afraid to lead.

Reports of 6-year-old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing classmates, a teen suspended for taking a swig of Scope mouthwash after lunch, girls suspended for possessing Midol and an honor student expelled for having a table knife in her school lunch were more than his heart could endure.

As the end neared, doctors say C.S. drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding regulations on low-flow toilets and mandatory air bags. Finally, upon hearing about a government plan to ban inhalers from 14 million asthmatics due to a trace of a pollutant that may be harmful to the environment, C.S. breathed his last.

Charging 6-year-olds with sexual harassment seems a little bit of overkill, but at what age do we start teaching boys (in particular) that they don't just get to do with girls what they feel like doing? And who does that teaching? Parents? Teachers? Others?

And in a country which lost 55,000 souls a year to auto accidents not many years ago (as many Americans as died in the Vietnam war and largely because people would not use the perfectly adequate seatbelts already in cars for many years prior), is there something wrong with making protection more passive when those accidents involve innocent bystanders and survivors? Was it okay for the U.S. government to ban Thalidomide in the 60s despite its successful use in Europe for years? Regulation cuts both ways.

Much of this has to do with the idea of the common good, which I know is distinctly out of fashion these days as many believe whatever they've achieved has been accomplished entirely on their own and without any negative impact on others. I'll agree fully that there certainly are limits to what we can do to protect people from themselves and from damaging people who just happened to be there at the time. But that is a continuum and it leaves the question of what a society is to do when individual efforts collectively fall short.