You have to wonder what’s wrong with some people
You have to wonder what’s wrong with some people?
A famous Facebook meme tells us that you can’t fix stupid, but you can shut it up. Sadly, I’m afraid we need a little more than duct tape and WD-40 to fix the problems. Daily, we read in the local newspapers or watch on the evening news stories about people doing stupid things and putting lives in jeopardy. So, this is my little rant about that.
Recently, we read of a driver clocked at 180 km/h in a 100km/h zone. Who does this, especially with other people in the car?
School bus drivers are always reporting drivers going by their buses when their stop signs are deployed.
People continue to use their cellphones in a non-hands-free way while they are driving, and many other folks still continue to drink and drive. Have the decades of trying to educate these irresponsible folks been for naught?
In the light of the greatest mass shooting in the U.S., their president still supports the right of Americans to own and bear arms. Also ongoing is the uproar that has arisen with the North Korean missile program, and the ongoing terrorist threats around the world.
If you’re looking for this column to provide you with any answers, you’re going to be disappointed, although I may offer a bit of a tongue-in-cheek suggestion. Even though I was an educator for more than 30 years, I’ve been shaking my head so much that I think I have whiplash!
People complain, myself included, about all the rules and regulations governments put into effect. Just what we need, eh? More government intrusion in our lives. It could be that such rules are necessary in attempts to discourage stupid. Of course, lots of folks figure that rules are for other people. “Oh, it won’t matter if I do it just this one time.” Wrong! If you point a loaded gun in the direction of another person and pull the trigger, someone is going to get hurt.
If education and good examples don’t work to fix stupid, then what should we do? Maybe the answer is to put into place more punishing consequences; experiences or penalties that will resonate with the offender so that they only do stupid once. Many of the folks who get caught doing stupid things frequently end up in the news getting caught doing the same things further down the road. A couple of stories that recently came to my attention may provide some inspiration.
Some Iowa schools feature seclusion rooms, six-ft. by six-ft. padded rooms that are used to place children in who are at risk of harming themselves or others. Of course, this has created a great uproar with the public, and you know that given human nature, the use of these rooms has been abused beyond their original intentions. Iowa state education officials have been quick to defend both the rooms and the practices.
We’ve also recently learned that Correctional Service Canada is reviewing the use of solitary or administrative confinement in prisons. They recognize that the effects of isolation can be severe. Prisoner-rights groups are all over this. A review is underway to set out new rules and regulations around this type of punishment: how it should be used, for what durations, and which classes of offenders should be excluded from this form of punishment.
Maybe we’ve hit upon something here; it seems periods of seclusion or isolation may leave a lasting effect on offenders. Placing people who have done stupid things into some form of seclusion for a period of time may exact such a visceral and enduring response, that they will follow any rule they have to in order to avoid such as a punishment again. Who says the punishment has to fit the crime?
What do you think?