Response to Washington Post article on Zero tolerance It derives from a number of factors, including overworked and underresourced administrations, incompetent administrators, lawyers with no interest in maintaining a workable system, critics who have no understanding of what it takes to run a school, and so on. These dramatic cases may bring national attention but they put the onus on “stupid” admins rather than where it belongs: on a litigious society that overreacts to every event like Wiener’s Wiener. Is this really what we care about? It appears so.
Ever since the 70s, we’ve seen fear growing in our society until now a whole political movement has been founded on it: fear of illegal aliens, fear of Blacks, fear of molesters, fear of gangs, fear of drugs, fear of cancer, fear of big government, fear of taxes, fear of leprauchans and more. Of course there is some danger in all of these things; I mean, a Black guy might rob you but so might a White guy. How many stories have I heard about Whites not being able to get a job, a scholarship, or a promotion b/c it all went to “the Blacks” (I think that’s who Trump was talking about).
But who do we really have to fear? Look at the issue of molester priests. Will we ever get rid of perverted people? No. It’s part of twisted psychosexual development. But why weren’t those people weeded out? The authorities ignored the situation, abetted by church members who were, again, afraid of scandal or law suits, just like the schools. The church gets picked on because it holds itself to such a high standard but we would be just as upset over large numbers of doctors abusing their patients, lawyers cheating their clients, bankers gutting the public treasury….. oops, getting a little close to the bone there.
As in all societies, the powerful authorities seem immune from penalties. I am not talking about punishment here, just what would happen if you took your car to a mechanic and it came back sounding like a threshing machine. So we could unhire bankers, principals, generals, lawyers, doctors, and anyone of these high-status folks who screw up. And priests, too. They call it defrocking. Where is this for other authoritative figures?
Or is that just the way of the world?