RIP Common Sense...
Nov. 11th, 2010 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teleen_fictionNot crediting where I got this because I've seen it more than one place. Also, since some of this commentary is negative, I don't want to single anyone out, as it's not directed at anyone who's posted this. If it's in italics, it's mine.
Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true.
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.
There are two sides to every story.
It's very easy to say, "Well, it's common sense that a girl's parents should be notified if she's pregnant," because there's this idea that children belong to their parents, as in property. Sorry, they are individual human beings with their own rights and rights to their bodies. Parents have an obligation to guide them and the right to withhold privileges if that guidance is ignored, but their rights end where the child's body begins. If I were the parent of a teenage girl, I know that I would want to know if my daughter were pregnant. I would hope that I would have fostered the sort of relationship with her that she would feel as though she could come to me and we could deal with it. However, I would not have the RIGHT to know. Period. It's her body and she has a right to privacy, even if she's living with me and I'm providing all of the support for her.
Because she didn't ask to be born. I chose to have her and chose to accept that I would be having an individual, not an extension of my self and not an accessory. And most definitely, NOT PROPERTY. Children aren't pets. They are immature human beings with the same frontal lobe that I have and while they need care, protection, and guidance to ensure they become mature adults, I don't have absolute rights over their bodies, especially not once they're able to produce children of their own.
I think this is coming back to the whole "How Old Is Fifteen Really?" debate I had earlier. The fact is, once a girl is capable of having a baby, she's a young woman. She may not be an adult, necessarily, but she is a woman. And as soon as a boy's sperm are motile, he's a young man. Young men and women need to be given the rights over their bodies when they reach that point, regardless of how much it pains the parents to do so.
I had to make sure to clarify that point because let's face it - a seven-year-old will refuse to be vaccinated because he or she doesn't like shots and parents have to make those sorts of decisions for prepubescents. But once a child hits puberty, the ball game changes and to say that it's the death of common sense because young adults have reproductive rights is oversimplifying in the extreme.
And that's what I really have an issue with with "RIP Common Sense". It takes a lot of things out of context and tells us that valid moves forward in the arena of human rights are a bad thing because they somehow go against 'common sense'. Common sense used to say that leeches were acceptable treatments and that cats were the familiars of witches, the latter of which caused the Black Death to spread across Europe because there were no cats to kill the rats.
I have a problem with seeing this passed around without looking at deeper contexts and situations. Not everything is so black-and-white as this would have you believe. I know that all of you know that (at least I hope you do), but I really felt as though it should be examined before I continued passing it around. It's very easy to say that these things are common sense and some of them still are, but I just didn't feel as though I could allow some of the sweeping generalizations found in here to pass without comment.
To those who have posted it recently, please don't think that this is in any way an attack on you personally for having posted it. It's not meant as one, and if you feel that it is, then I sincerely apologize.
ETA: As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alt_universe_me just pointed out, why does Common Sense have to be male? It's a gender-neutral concept - why did there have to be male pronouns to denote it? I realize it was an obituary and so the person writing it might have felt the need to anthropomorphize it a bit, but even so - sexist language is sexist.
Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true.
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).
It depends on the adult and it depends on the child.
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.
If the student was autistic and the teacher screamed at him, he or she deserved to be fired. Or if it was the case of my seventh grade shop teacher, who was a racist (based on previous comments and behavior) who finally slapped a black student.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
This one I actually agree with. Schools aren't a babysitting service and parents need to stop treating them as both daycare and co-parents.
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.
Sun lotion is one thing, but honestly, I'd want to have to sign a form at the beginning of the year before my child got any medicine, simply because of allergies. I do think that a form at the beginning of the year is plenty, though.
A pregnant 11-year-old who was raped by her father shouldn't have to get his permission to abort his baby. Nor should he be notified of her condition. Or a pregnant 15-year-old whose parents are fundamentalist Christians who would force her to have the baby even though she doesn't want to. Or a pregnant girl whose parent's are against her having the baby and who would try to talk her into an abortion.
Like it or not, once a female is pregnant, she's a woman, no matter what her age is. She may not be a mature woman, but she is a woman and must be given ownership and rights over her body.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Churches have always been businesses. Always.
Criminals receiving better treatment than their victims... Okay, I can see this one, but given the human rights violations in times past, I do think that a reformation of the justice system was in order. Also, given the stereotype of every prisoner getting raped and/or having violence done against them even in current times, I think that we have a long way to go in making the punishment fit the crime. Prison isn't supposed to be fun, but very few people would trade 'three hots and a cot' for being a prison bitch.
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.
This one hurts my brain. If someone breaks into my house, I'm shooting them. Period. I can't afford to take chances with my life and if you come into my house, I'm assuming it's not for my stuff, it's for my body. Plus, how many burglars kill the witnesses in home invasions? So yeah, I agree with this one, too. If a stranger breaks into my house, I have a legitimate fear for my life thanks to television.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
The McDonald's with the famous hot coffee had actually been sited a few times previously for having coffee that was TOO hot.
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 Why is knowing your rights a bad thing?
I Want It Now Can't argue with this one.
Someone Else Is To Blame Or this one.
I'm A Victim This is an extreme oversimplification.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.
*********************************************************************************
I've seen this floating around quite a bit and felt like I needed to rebut some of what's here. On the one hand, it's a cool thing to rally around, the idea that all of this is common sense and we all should go back to the way things used to be. Sorry, in the 'good old days', abortion was illegal, schools could paddle students or whip their hands, there were public floggings, and prisons were places where criminals were sent to die because most crimes were capital offenses and so a prison was something of an anomaly.
It depends on the adult and it depends on the child.
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.
If the student was autistic and the teacher screamed at him, he or she deserved to be fired. Or if it was the case of my seventh grade shop teacher, who was a racist (based on previous comments and behavior) who finally slapped a black student.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
This one I actually agree with. Schools aren't a babysitting service and parents need to stop treating them as both daycare and co-parents.
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.
Sun lotion is one thing, but honestly, I'd want to have to sign a form at the beginning of the year before my child got any medicine, simply because of allergies. I do think that a form at the beginning of the year is plenty, though.
A pregnant 11-year-old who was raped by her father shouldn't have to get his permission to abort his baby. Nor should he be notified of her condition. Or a pregnant 15-year-old whose parents are fundamentalist Christians who would force her to have the baby even though she doesn't want to. Or a pregnant girl whose parent's are against her having the baby and who would try to talk her into an abortion.
Like it or not, once a female is pregnant, she's a woman, no matter what her age is. She may not be a mature woman, but she is a woman and must be given ownership and rights over her body.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Churches have always been businesses. Always.
Criminals receiving better treatment than their victims... Okay, I can see this one, but given the human rights violations in times past, I do think that a reformation of the justice system was in order. Also, given the stereotype of every prisoner getting raped and/or having violence done against them even in current times, I think that we have a long way to go in making the punishment fit the crime. Prison isn't supposed to be fun, but very few people would trade 'three hots and a cot' for being a prison bitch.
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.
This one hurts my brain. If someone breaks into my house, I'm shooting them. Period. I can't afford to take chances with my life and if you come into my house, I'm assuming it's not for my stuff, it's for my body. Plus, how many burglars kill the witnesses in home invasions? So yeah, I agree with this one, too. If a stranger breaks into my house, I have a legitimate fear for my life thanks to television.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
The McDonald's with the famous hot coffee had actually been sited a few times previously for having coffee that was TOO hot.
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 Why is knowing your rights a bad thing?
I Want It Now Can't argue with this one.
Someone Else Is To Blame Or this one.
I'm A Victim This is an extreme oversimplification.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.
*********************************************************************************
I've seen this floating around quite a bit and felt like I needed to rebut some of what's here. On the one hand, it's a cool thing to rally around, the idea that all of this is common sense and we all should go back to the way things used to be. Sorry, in the 'good old days', abortion was illegal, schools could paddle students or whip their hands, there were public floggings, and prisons were places where criminals were sent to die because most crimes were capital offenses and so a prison was something of an anomaly.
There are two sides to every story.
It's very easy to say, "Well, it's common sense that a girl's parents should be notified if she's pregnant," because there's this idea that children belong to their parents, as in property. Sorry, they are individual human beings with their own rights and rights to their bodies. Parents have an obligation to guide them and the right to withhold privileges if that guidance is ignored, but their rights end where the child's body begins. If I were the parent of a teenage girl, I know that I would want to know if my daughter were pregnant. I would hope that I would have fostered the sort of relationship with her that she would feel as though she could come to me and we could deal with it. However, I would not have the RIGHT to know. Period. It's her body and she has a right to privacy, even if she's living with me and I'm providing all of the support for her.
Because she didn't ask to be born. I chose to have her and chose to accept that I would be having an individual, not an extension of my self and not an accessory. And most definitely, NOT PROPERTY. Children aren't pets. They are immature human beings with the same frontal lobe that I have and while they need care, protection, and guidance to ensure they become mature adults, I don't have absolute rights over their bodies, especially not once they're able to produce children of their own.
I think this is coming back to the whole "How Old Is Fifteen Really?" debate I had earlier. The fact is, once a girl is capable of having a baby, she's a young woman. She may not be an adult, necessarily, but she is a woman. And as soon as a boy's sperm are motile, he's a young man. Young men and women need to be given the rights over their bodies when they reach that point, regardless of how much it pains the parents to do so.
I had to make sure to clarify that point because let's face it - a seven-year-old will refuse to be vaccinated because he or she doesn't like shots and parents have to make those sorts of decisions for prepubescents. But once a child hits puberty, the ball game changes and to say that it's the death of common sense because young adults have reproductive rights is oversimplifying in the extreme.
And that's what I really have an issue with with "RIP Common Sense". It takes a lot of things out of context and tells us that valid moves forward in the arena of human rights are a bad thing because they somehow go against 'common sense'. Common sense used to say that leeches were acceptable treatments and that cats were the familiars of witches, the latter of which caused the Black Death to spread across Europe because there were no cats to kill the rats.
I have a problem with seeing this passed around without looking at deeper contexts and situations. Not everything is so black-and-white as this would have you believe. I know that all of you know that (at least I hope you do), but I really felt as though it should be examined before I continued passing it around. It's very easy to say that these things are common sense and some of them still are, but I just didn't feel as though I could allow some of the sweeping generalizations found in here to pass without comment.
To those who have posted it recently, please don't think that this is in any way an attack on you personally for having posted it. It's not meant as one, and if you feel that it is, then I sincerely apologize.
ETA: As
alt_universe_me just pointed out, why does Common Sense have to be male? It's a gender-neutral concept - why did there have to be male pronouns to denote it? I realize it was an obituary and so the person writing it might have felt the need to anthropomorphize it a bit, but even so - sexist language is sexist. 
