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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
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Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
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November 13th, 2006 ROB IN 2008: PEOPLE, INCLUDING KIDS, ARE GONNA DIE... LET 'EM As we all reflect on the results of last week's national election, now seems like a good time to present yet another update on my own possible candidacy. Some day I may run for political office. If I do, my slogan is going to be "People, including kids, are going to die… let em." There is an epidemic loss of common sense and simultaneous increase in fatalistic paranoia in our society that has taken over. We have totally forgotten that part of life, sadly, is death. We are allowing our "God Syndrome," to get out of control, believing that we can, and should, stop all forms of tragedy. Obviously I am not advocating the death of a child. I am calling for calm, common sense and understanding. Sometimes you have to illustrate the absurd by being absurd and that's what my campaign slogan refers to. We have become an absurd society. We pass laws and regulations to address rare situations which either need no addressing or are never going to be prevented. Thus, people, including kids, are going to die... and we have to let them. If we were seriously trying to stop all unnecessary deaths, we would immediately ban driving. Vehicular deaths kill more people worldwide per year than anything else, including famine and war. The reason we don't ban driving of course, is that it's not reasonable. However, it is equally unreasonable to create issues and laws out of other such tragedies that kill an infinitesimal amount of people and can usually be prevented by just a little understanding and/or personal responsibility. One such issue is that of children in America being run over by their own parents as a result of the child "unknowingly to the parent," running behind the vehicle while Mommy is leaving the house. This happens almost 2,500 times per year, resulting in the deaths of 100 kids. Pragmatists like me look at this issue two very simple ways; first of all, there is the cold-hearted, by the book, black and white statistical analysis of the situation. While the death of any one child is always tragic, you must remember the premise, here. We are never, ever, going to stop tragedies in this world. The more we try, the more we fail. Reasonable precautions to prevent recurring problems are the answer. There are approximately 75 million children in America right now, and 100 of them will die via getting run over by their parents this year. That is .000001% of the childhood population in America. That, put bluntly, is not a recurring or pressing problem. That is what we call an anomaly. That is what we call a rarity, a fluke, a random act of senseless death. It is certainly not an epidemic, or even a concern. To those 100 families I offer my sympathy for their loss and nothing more. Sadly, people, including kids, are going to die. Constraining society in unreasonable ways to try to stop that inevitability is not the answer. The second, and more important (although more often overlooked) point, is that all 100 of these deaths can be prevented without any government intervention, industry regulation or advocacy group involvement. The solution to children not getting run over is quite simple: Watch your damn kids. There are times as a parent when you will lose track of your child. This is to be expected. It may be a rainy Saturday when the little tike has hidden himself in the hall closet while you all work and play inside the house. It may even occur in the confines of your local grocery store when you turn your back for one moment and off the cute little dickens runs to aisle #4. These incidents happen, with no malice on the part of either parent or child, and are expected from time to time. However, it is not acceptable, ever, to "lose track" of your child when you are operating a 2,000 pound piece of machinery in his or her vicinity. Nor is it an acceptable explanation to claim, after running over your own child, that "I thought my husband was watching the kids." These are not explanations; they are excuses for a lack of parenting at that moment. A horrible, awful, ill-timed lack of parenting that resulted in the death of a child, but a lack on the parents' part, none the less. The dead child is not a result of God's will, poorly built SUVs or a lack of government oversight. The dead child is a lack of parental oversight and we as a society should hold them, and only them, accountable for the loss. Doing anything to the contrary reassigns blame to the wrong party. Which, sadly is exactly what is happening, thanks to the apologists in our nation who refuse to point the finger of blame where it belongs (at parents), and also refuse to accept the fact that tragedies that occur at the rate of .000001% of the population are going to happen and are not a pressing need in America. Look at this headline from CNN.com: "SUV backover deaths: What can be done?" Obviously, the answer is crystal clear. The thing that can be done is that America can go back to being a nation of personal responsibility and we can tell parents to watch their children. That, of course, is not politically correct, nor is it much of a story, so CNN goes on to find an apologist who will explain away the problem without holding parents accountable; It's called the "bye-bye syndrome" said Janette Fennell, founder of the auto safety group Kids and Cars. Wanting one last chance to see mommy, daddy, or grandmother before they go, a child will run up behind the vehicle at the worst possible time. Small children don't realize that the driver may not be able to see them. Isn't that rich? Ms. Fennell has actually found a way to blame the children, not the adults, for getting themselves run over. It's a syndrome, she says. Of course it is. Anything with the word "syndrome," or "disease," immediately relieves people of their responsibility in today's culture. Additionally, this syndrome afflicts children (who apparently, run things in this universe now, because they are allowed to "run up behind" vehicles with no parental oversight). It's a brilliant strategy considering the fact that we as a culture would (rightfully) never actually allow blame to be placed on a child for being hyper or loving. Thus, Ms. Fennell has twisted the argument to be that no one is at fault; it's all just a terrible accident. Ooops. Wait a minute, that's not completely accurate, my apologies to Ms. Fennell and her fellow apologists out there. The fault lies squarely at the feet of those big, bad automakers who should be installing all kinds of safety equipment in their horrible SUV's. Wanna read the whole story from CNN? Click on the link below... click here to read the entire story
This just in; kids will still get run over. The idea behind laws against things like murder, robbery, etc is not to completely end those offenses, it is to control them. No one actually believes that we are ever going to stop murder entirely; we are just trying to deter and contain it reasonably. If we really wanted to prevent all murder, we would have to eliminate a variety of things (including our right to bear arms and, for that matter, knives) that would prove to be unreasonable. By the way, even after eliminating every weapon known to man, guess what? People would still get murdered, either by strangulation, being pushed off of a balcony or being forced to liisten to Dawn talk for 12 straight hours. Additionally, laws preventing murder are about people invading other peoples' rights. All of our rights are afforded to all people until we use those freedoms to try and remove someone else's rights. For example, you have the right to bear arms, but that right ends when you try to eliminate my right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. In the case of idiotic parents running over their own children, there are no rights being violated. The only crime is that of stupidity and carelessness on the part of the parent, and if we allow people to continue passing laws and regulations to prevent those things, we'll never stop.
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