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StephUK
10-18-2009, 05:41 PM
A friend of mine mailed this to me.

Subject: An Obituary printed in the London Times - makes you think

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was,since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the
worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend
more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children,
are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy
charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly
children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could
not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses;
and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in
her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son,
Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do
nothing.

Ive always been a dreamer
10-18-2009, 11:15 PM
That's a good one, Steph!

MikeA
10-19-2009, 08:28 AM
I'm not disputing the sentiment of that post at all. I agree that things have gotten out of hand with the attitude forced upon everyone because of the actions of a few.

But there is an interesting tidbit that is misrepresented in it. This is no fault of yours Steph, and in reality, it isn't the fault of the person or persons who put this document together.

It has to do with the "McDonnald's Coffee" lawsuit.

Not too long after that happened, I was selected for jury duty on a case that pitted a guy who had been hit by a sign while standing in line at a Wal-Mart store in Western Kansas. The case was declared a miss-trial by the Judge because of some technicality...both Lawyers had introduced evidence into the hearing that had not first been presented to the opposing lawyer.

Anyway, the Judge called the jury (including me) back to his chambers and asked us what if anything, were were thinking of compensating the injured gentleman with. Without going into detail as to reasons, I was thinking to myself that I would grant him a lifetime's supply of generic Aspirin redeemable only at Wal-Mart! I'm not sympathetic to people who are "sue-happy".

The Judge brought up first to us the lawsuit that had recently been settled concerning the McDonald's Coffee. He said that he needed to do that because the two cases had similarities. He told us that the suit had been "spun" horribly by the media and made to sound totally ridiculous. In fact, the lady who spilled that coffee in her lap, was trapped behind the steering wheel of her car and was belted with seatbelts in according to State Law and could not escape. That scalding coffee produced 3rd degree burns in her groin area. It required many days (I don't recall how many) in Intensive Care Burn Unit and involved Skin Grafts.

The clincher though was that the particular McDonald's in LA (I believe) had been warned, written up and fined several times concerning the coffee. They had ignored the warnings and just paid the fine. Go Figure!

The amount of the settlement was set not only to compensate the victim but also to "punish" McDonald's.

I may have some of the details wrong...it has been 10 years since my involvement. But I remembered this because it brought back memories of something that happened to an Uncle of mine. He, my dad and another Uncle were camping on Lake Ouichita near Hot Springs, Arkansas. The camper was one of those that you pull behind a car or truck and was very small. It had a small table that folded down and barely had room around it for men to sit, one on each side and one at the end of the table. My Uncle was sitting next to the wall of the camper. It was a really tight fit for him. I do not know whether it was my Dad or my other Uncle who had set a freshly brewed pot of coffee on the table and turned around to grab some cream or something....anyway, when he did, he bumped the table rather hard and knocked the coffee pot over. It spilled directly into my Uncle's lap! He was in the hospital for weeks. Skin Grafts were bad enough but as with many burn cases, infection set in. He survived but it was a very close thing.

thelongrun
10-19-2009, 04:09 PM
Nice one:thumbsup:

bernie's bender
10-20-2009, 04:16 PM
Common sense has always been uncommon.

I was hired by a midwestern state board of education in the late 1980's to help them design and implement curriculum to teach 'critical thinking' (the stuff that one would presume might generate common sense)... so, I gathered a team and we developed curriculum and a plan for implementation and testing regime to determine the success of our program.

Prior to implementation I suggested we choose some pilot schools and also administer an exam to the folks who were going to teach this curriculum to determine their abilities to critically think (it standing to reason that to teach something like thinking critically... it would be of benefit to all if the teacher could do it as well.)

5% demonstrated efficacy. Back to the drawing board. We designed a method and curriculum to be delivered first to teachers to train them in how to think critically, then run the pilot, then move the curriculum state wide as they wanted to be leaders in the 'critical thinking movement'.

The state decided it was too hard and too ambitious... so they shelved it.

MikeA
10-20-2009, 04:41 PM
The state decided it was too hard and too ambitious... so they shelved it.

ROTF! :rofl:

bernie's bender
10-20-2009, 08:22 PM
ROTF! :rofl:

to be fair, I was asked what my expectations for success were (in helping the teachers become critical thinkers) and after one test group.....

they didn't make the wrong decision... but, a painful one to be sure...


For me, common sense is a slightly scary term. It was once common sense to think the earth flat, that a black person was 3/5 human, that flying was needlessly dangerous etc.

There are several things in the initial repost that are not accurate... and in many cases the very same folks who cry for 'zero tolerance' remove the ability of organizations to 'see the big picture' and because they are charged with following the law... they make what appear to be stupid decisions.

but, I like the post because it is a reminder that we can do better by trusting good judgement rather than assuming that one more rule will make it right.

MikeA
10-21-2009, 09:48 AM
Until I was around 10 or 12 years old, my attitudes were those that most all kids had "back then"...get through school, go to church on Sundays, mow the yard and ultimately get a job at Reynolds Metals, get married and have a boatload of kids. In essence...do what my parents did and think like my parents thought. Exactly the antithesis of "Free Thinking" or "Original Thinking".

Interesting time. By the time I got into Jr High School, there was a cultural revolution in full swing. When things are "grey" as they were as I and everyone else grew into adolescence, it isn't surprising that the goal of the revolutionists was the opposite...Full Technicolor!

I'm afraid we took it to the extreme in goals if not reality. It wasn't "just" the drugs and lifestyle...it was rebellion against virtually all Authority. If it was "accepted", we opposed it. If it was "rejected", we embraced it! It got really complicated for us because that which we embraced because of prior rejection, became that which was accepted and therefore needed to be rejected!

In the end, I think that it more or less settled into some resemblance of a status quo. It took years though for that to happen. For me, it probably settled into a standard somewhere in the mid to late 70's. It manifested primarily in a stubbornness I've passed on to my son and daughter. Don't either accept or reject anything until you have a chance to evaluate it for yourself.

I'm afraid that my son is a lot more like me that I'd like to admit for he was constantly in trouble in school with the teachers because he would question those things they were trying to teach. He would not accept anything they had to say unless he had completely come to the conclusions himself that they were trying to brainwash into their students. We ended up Homeschooling him for 4 years!

However, with all of that said, I think we are on the lower hump of the sine curve right now. Over reaction. There should be a law about making laws!

All of this legislation of morality! Yesh!!!!

In Missouri, the voters approved Casinos. Then turned around and set a "loss limit" on patrons of the casinos that was in effect up until 2009 when the legislated loss limit was finally repealed. Now those unfortunate gamblers have to decide for themselves when they have lost enough. I don't know how they'll manage now that there is NOT a law dictating their "Common Sense".

In many States today even, there is a LAW requiring that motorcyclists MUST wear a helmet! How stupid is it that someone would think there needs to be a law mandating that a cyclist wear a helmet? Common sense should indicate that if you are riding on two wheels down a highway and crash without a helmet, a helmet just might save your life! There doesn't need to be a law about that! Note that in many States, this "Helmet Law" has been repealed. I guess the legislators decided finally that it was a "self correcting" issue and got rid of it.

But there are more instances of laws that are an attempt to make into law that which should be "Common Sense". It's to a point now that it is almost impossible to do anything with it being likely that you are breaking some law.

bernie's bender
10-21-2009, 11:13 AM
The helmet thing is a 'no brainer'.... when the data was studied the number of 'free thinkers' who went without a helmet and subsequently got into accidents, suffered long term, debilitating brain injury without the benefit of adequate insurance and thus became wards of the state were great enough that the taxpayers basically said, "if you are gonna ride, you gotta have insurance and since very few policies will cover what is likely enough to happen to you, you gotta wear a helmet too.

When a regular non motorcycle riding citizen sees a motorcyclist... just realize that we are subsidizing a good deal of stupidity (lack of common sense, huzzah!) as motorcycles ARE dangerous and riding without a helmet (on any bike) is statistically a very foolish thing to do.

As for the teachers giving out aspirins thing. As we started understanding Reyes syndrome better, it was determined that while aspirin is a great drug for pain, it is not a cure for anything... Several kids got very ill and some died as a result of teachers giving aspirin to kids who were sensitive or susceptible to it. In most of the cases, the parents were aware of the sensitivity and had they been consulted... the child would have avoided tragedy. Rare? sure. unless it happens to you.

By not issuing an aspirin or sun tan lotion or whatever, the child will be uncomfortable, but not risk death or long term effects... seems like a fair trade to me... but, I've never claimed to have common sense!

StephUK
10-22-2009, 08:06 AM
It's interesting to read all the responses to my original post.

There's 'two sides to every story' on individual cases, and yes, I agree that 'big business' does have a responsibility to it's customers; and all too often health & safety issues are not monitored sufficiently.

Putting an 'Eagles' link into this thread, have another listen to 'Get Over It' - the lyrics put across the same general feeling as my original post.