-Caveat Lector-
> SpinTech: August 12, 1999
> <Picture>
>
> Zero Tolerance
> by Russell Madden
>
> A grade school boy is removed from class because he brings a
> plastic toy soldier holding a tiny plastic rifle to show his
> friends.
>
> A girl faces disciplinary action for providing a friend with an
> over-the-counter pain medication.
>
> Planting a kiss on a little girl's cheek leads to a tiny Romeo
> being slapped... with a charge of sexual harassment.
>
> Jokes? Exaggerations? The stuff of fiction?
>
> No. Simply the logical results of the latest buzzwords held so
> dearly to heart by the intolerant bureaucrats entrusted with
> educating our children:
>
> Zero tolerance.
>
> Zero tolerance of weapons at school, especially guns. Zero
> tolerance of drugs. Zero tolerance of inappropriate contact
> between a male and a female. Zero tolerance of noncompliance.
>
> Zero tolerance of common sense, proportionality, and freedom.
>
> Of course, no one suggests that children should be randomly
> consuming recreational or any other drugs or that packing real
> weapons to class is a good idea. What is lacking in the
> hysterical attitudes exhibited by too many of our educators and
> officials is the ability to think in terms of principles rather
> than rules. Reasonable concerns of children unwittingly consuming
> harmful substances or inadvertently injuring others is twisted
> and transformed into rigid application of rules regardless of
> context or facts.
>
> The putative Drug War that provides the engine for much of this
> absurdity is, in actuality -- as others have rightly observed --
> a war on people. Because the rationale behind this assault on the
> citizenry cannot withstand a close scrutiny in the hard, clear
> light of facts and logic, those who wage this conflict retreat
> from the effort of focused thought and the immoral implications
> of their daft behavior. Safely repeating their mantra of
> "following the rules," they dispense with personal responsibility
> and blindly punish those who have committed no offense.
>
> When a nine-year-old boy is suspended for passing out breath
> mints; when a fourteen-year-old girl is removed from classes for
> bringing a prescription drug (despite carrying a note from her
> mother); when a thirteen-year-old is sent home for wearing purple
> lipstick, something beyond a desire to ensure the safety of our
> student population is at work. Protection from legitimate dangers
> does not require such heavy-handed actions as strip-searching
> young girls to catch a supposed thief.
>
> As is usually the case when the government is involved,
> conformity, control, and expansion of power over the individual
> motivates those who refuse to examine their own conduct too
> closely. This attitude of, "Don't question my authority. Do it my
> way because I said so. Do it because I can make you do it," will,
> in fact, intimidate many people into obeying even the most
> outrageous of commands.
>
> Other individuals, however, will witness this kind of arbitrary
> exercise of force, of might makes right, and begin to question
> the legitimacy of such leadership and the inane rules the
> bureaucrats seek to force down their throats. When legal adults
> under twenty-one are arrested and charged with OWI/DUI despite a
> blood alcohol count of only .02, these recalcitrant young people
> may recognize the blackmail inherent in the government's threats
> of withholding highway funds if "zero tolerance" laws for
> underage drinkers are not passed. The fact that such a low
> alcohol level poses no true danger to anyone may lead the
> skeptical to question the actual goals of the politicians pushing
> such a policy.
>
> With luck and hard work, hopefully more and more of our youth
> will have zero tolerance for those aspects of our culture which
> genuinely deserve this type of an attitude.
>
> If more citizens one day have zero tolerance for such government
> abuses as occurred at Waco and Ruby Ridge; if more of us begin to
> hold zero tolerance for asset forfeiture and the destruction
> accompanying the Drug War; if those questing for actual safety
> accept zero tolerance for gun control and the plethora of
> agencies -- such as the DEA, EPA, and the BATF -- demanding the
> right to protect us from ourselves; if every individual develops
> zero tolerance for violations of our Constitution and the myriad
> infringements of our rights both small and large, then and only
> then will we be able to restore balance to our social
> institutions and establish the freedoms and liberty we each
> deserve as unique and individual human beings.
>
> --------
> Russell Madden teaches speech communication at Mt. Mercy College
> and writing at Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has
> written for The Freeman, Real Mensch, Full Context, and other
> fine publications.
>
> Copyright 1999 Russell Madden.
>From SpinTechMag
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