Reason # 921 why public education is noxious
I just saw a commercial on the boob tube that brought me close to spitting out the beer I was consuming at the moment. The commercial was made on behalf of some students attending Lahser High School in suburban Detroit and attempted to draw parallels that I find objectionable. It begins by rehashing the horrendous events of 9/11/01, complete with video footage and comments on the death toll and whatnot. It then switched the subject to alcohol by stating that there were 8,000 deaths related to alcohol in that same month. The second parallel involves gut reactions: our government responded to the terrorist attacks by starting a war on terrorism, but why hasn't our government responded to the alchohol problem by declaring war on alcohol?
War on alcohol? Have school history textbooks been watered down and degraded to the point that the prohibition era is no longer covered? Maybe these kids are just taking certain sadistic tendencies a wee bit too far by hoping to extend them into the realm of future legislation. As awful and unfortunate as drunken driving and other alcohol-related deaths are, do we really need to revert to dangerous public policy blunders such as prohibition?
I can think of plenty of other things that have similar levels of lethal potential as alcohol. I wonder if these kids would support a war on aspirin (which is also linked to 1000s of deaths), or a war on cars (which are even more lethal with mixed with booze), or a war on water (people drown, ya know?).
I think I have a solution to these students who clearly need a lesson in not only history, but the effects of supposedly benevolent government legislation. Let's round these kids up for a field trip, a short little drive from their shielded suburbia to some random drug infested neighborhood in Detroit, complete with gang warfare being waged to protect their turf, i.e. marketplace. Inform the youngsters that this is what happens when the government decides to declare war on certain substances. Having gangs like the Crips and Bloods peddling drugs, thanks to our government, is bad enough; do you really want to reincarnate the likes of Al Capone as well?
*Freeman now cracks open yet another brew, a potential act of civil disobedience if some of these intellectually delinquent kiddies of today turn into tomorrow's legislators and lobbyists.
War on alcohol? Have school history textbooks been watered down and degraded to the point that the prohibition era is no longer covered? Maybe these kids are just taking certain sadistic tendencies a wee bit too far by hoping to extend them into the realm of future legislation. As awful and unfortunate as drunken driving and other alcohol-related deaths are, do we really need to revert to dangerous public policy blunders such as prohibition?
I can think of plenty of other things that have similar levels of lethal potential as alcohol. I wonder if these kids would support a war on aspirin (which is also linked to 1000s of deaths), or a war on cars (which are even more lethal with mixed with booze), or a war on water (people drown, ya know?).
I think I have a solution to these students who clearly need a lesson in not only history, but the effects of supposedly benevolent government legislation. Let's round these kids up for a field trip, a short little drive from their shielded suburbia to some random drug infested neighborhood in Detroit, complete with gang warfare being waged to protect their turf, i.e. marketplace. Inform the youngsters that this is what happens when the government decides to declare war on certain substances. Having gangs like the Crips and Bloods peddling drugs, thanks to our government, is bad enough; do you really want to reincarnate the likes of Al Capone as well?
*Freeman now cracks open yet another brew, a potential act of civil disobedience if some of these intellectually delinquent kiddies of today turn into tomorrow's legislators and lobbyists.
posted by freeman at 10/17/2004 01:40:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home