Common Sense......????

[Katie77]

For those of us mature enough to remember Common Sense


SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario:   Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.   

Scenario:   Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.   

Scenario:   Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.   

Scenario:   Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse.   Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang.   State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.   Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.   

Scenario:   Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.   

Scenario:   Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher.   English banned from core curriculum.   Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.   

Scenario:   Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with   domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario:   Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary.   Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
This would be really funny if it weren't so true and so sad.   Children can't go out to play and be kids.   And parents can't discipline....   I think we've gone overboard somewhere.   

     
 
 
   
 
 

[Shasta542]

Good one. 

[injest]

Good one. 

but a LITTLE exaggerated...

[Artiste]

Mary his teacher can NOT hug Johnny anymore or else she will be killed by his muslim father !!

[delalluvia]

but a LITTLE exaggerated...

Agree.

But common sense isn't so common anymore.

Johnny uses firecrackers on an ant bed?  Next thing, he using them on his neighbor's mailbox, to scare his neighbor's dog, tying them to the cat's tail.  Suddenly it isn't so funny or harmless anymore.

Johnny and Mark have a fistfight after school, crowd gathers, Mark starts losing to Johnny, Mark's friends don't like this, they jump into the fight, Johnny's friends jump in as well...

[optom3]

Good one. 

It made me smile.
I know it is a bit of an exaggeration,but there is a grain of truth in it.We have experienced the fight one.Oldest son finally got fed up with being called a fat English faggot by one kid and punched him.We were told he was lucky not to be expelled.He was given after school detention,the other guy got nothing,
I am not saying what my son did was right,but I can understand why he did it.He would have been branded a snitch if he had reported the kid,So it was a bit of a lose lose situation.
Either way the other boy should also have been punished.

The other one that we have experienced is the Ritalin scenario.It is almost exactly what happened with again oldest son back in England.Sometimes even I thought a good spanking would not have gone amiss.But it is prohibited.I know some people may take it too far rand we have to protect children.W e just seem to have missed the middle road lurching from one extreme to the other.
So he did go on Ritalin,did become a zombie,the tiny village school did get extra money for extra help.I took him off Ritalin,he was almost comatose on it.

[Artiste]

Now that drug warlords are members of Afganistan Government where our soldiers die for that, will such muslim radical(s) become member of Parliaments in the USA, Canada, England, France... too ??

[injest]

Agree.

But common sense isn't so common anymore.

Johnny uses firecrackers on an ant bed?  Next thing, he using them on his neighbor's mailbox, to scare his neighbor's dog, tying them to the cat's tail.  Suddenly it isn't so funny or harmless anymore.

Johnny and Mark have a fistfight after school, crowd gathers, Mark starts losing to Johnny, Mark's friends don't like this, they jump into the fight, Johnny's friends jump in as well...

or Mark goes home and gets a gun....

[Artiste]

It seems to me that BEFORE becoming a member of a Parliament in an Democratic society/country, that that person should be checked if he or she is a criminal, but NO such checking !!

Where is the common sence there ?

[Katie77]

I guess, reflecting and comparing issues twenty years apart is how a lot of us think of the past as the good ol days.

What is scarey, is that in twenty years time, our kids and grandkids, will probably call these days the good ol days.

[delalluvia]

I guess, reflecting and comparing issues twenty years apart is how a lot of us think of the past as the good ol days.

What is scarey, is that in twenty years time, our kids and grandkids, will probably call these days the good ol days.

Well, IMO there were never any "good ole days".  Just people being nostalgic.  Listen to the stories your parents and grandparents tell.  I've heard hair-raising stories of spousal abuse, attempted date rape, substance abusers, blatant open discrimination and bigotry, misogyny, teenage pregnancy/out of wedlock births, extramarital affairs and child abuse ranging from the early 1900's to the present day.

Things were never much better.  Things are just more open now, than then.

[injest]

Well, IMO there were never any "good ole days".  Just people being nostalgic.  Listen to the stories your parents and grandparents tell.  I've heard hair-raising stories of spousal abuse, attempted date rape, substance abusers, blatant open discrimination and bigotry, misogyny, teenage pregnancy/out of wedlock births, extramarital affairs and child abuse ranging from the early 1900's to the present day.

Things were never much better.  Things are just more open now, than then.

I wonder also if we tend to remember things in the best light. We were younger and had more innocence and hope then.

[Brown Eyes]

   

Scenario:   Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse.   Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang.   State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.   Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.   

This is the only scenario that really gives me pause because I truly do, personally consider that kind of whipping to be child abuse.  Both the 57 and 07 versions of what might happen seem exaggerated.  But, in the scenario described I would hope that something would happen for the father to stop treating his child that way.  Some kind of intervention with the father seems warranted in this scenario regardless of whether it was the 50s or last year.

[Katie77]

I wonder also if we tend to remember things in the best light. We were younger and had more innocence and hope then.

True Jess.......reminds me of the lyrics of the song by Barbara Streisand.....

Can it be that it was all so simple then,
Or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again,
Tell me? would we? could we?
Memories may be beautiful and yet,
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.
So it's the laughter
We will remember,
Whenever we remember
The way we were;
The way we were.