Consider the following scenario: A fourth-grade girl notices that the boy sitting next to her is wheezing. The girl suffers from asthma, and knows how uncomfortable and frightening it is when an attack occurs. She offers the boy her inhaler, and is punished by the school for violating its “no tolerance” drug policy.
Recently, an Illinois middle-school girl was given two counts of detention for hugging her friends at the end of the school day. School officials say that the girl violated the school’s “no PDA (public displays of affection)” policy.
Most parents seem to agree that the world is a scary place. Certainly we strive to protect and educate our children. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we fostered affection and the desire to help one another, and instilled these values in our youth? Don’t these concepts go hand in hand with “family values”?
The characteristic which separates humans from animals (and machines) is the ability to reason. When laws exist and are enforced with no room for interpretation or extenuating circumstances, we are operating in the absence of reason and common sense. Much more frightening than a world haunted by drug abuse, violence, and the threat of terrorism, is a world in which reason ceases to prevail, a world that is dominated by rigid laws with swift and severe retribution without the merit of thoughtful contemplation and exchange of ideas. When independent thinking, consideration, and the use of common sense are discouraged, we are in a lot more trouble than if we don’t strictly enforce every law we ever created.
Mona Kay Rifi, of Kendall Park
