Journal Dannon's Journal: Cultural Wussification: Pocketknives 8
For anyone who didn't catch it in Wednesday's Best of the Web from the Wall Street Journal, there's another news item about Zero Tolerance gone crazy. Seems she found a pocketknife in her backpack. (No mention of whether or not it was hers.) She shows it to her teacher (brave thing to do), and gets hit with interrogation, confinement, ostracism, and suspension. According to her father, she was "treated as if she was a terrorist."
Over a pocketknife.
This struck me personally because of a recent experience. See, I regularly carry two pocketknives with me, just as I carry my wallet and keys. (I carry two because friends always want to borrow one for a moment, if they know you've got one.) I was looking for an object to use in a passing-game theatrical warmup, and the things I had on hand were my wallet (not passing it), my cell phone (ditto), and my pocketknives. I didn't get a chance to decide against using my knife: the exercise leader rejected it out of hand. Didn't want anyone to hurt themselves on this closed-and-not-about-to-open-by-accident pocketknife.
What struck me then, and strikes me again on reading this article, was the difference in how two people can view a single object. For me, a pocketknife is purely a tool. A screwdriver, staple remover, bottle/can/plastic bag opener, etc. I don't see it as my theatrical comrade saw it, as something with which one is likely to hurt oneself... especially when one is accustomed to using staple guns and power drills.
And I certainly don't see it as the school administrators at Connolly Middle School in Temple, Ariz. would: as "a dangerous instrument capable of intimidating or inflicting bodily harm to another person". What happened to the time when a pocketknife was every American lad's prized possession, a sign of teenagehood? Why is it now that "dangerous items", including everything from shotguns to silverware, can only be trusted in the hands of someone with a badge? (For the record, I was trained in the safe use of a knife, by the Cub Scouts. Anyone who -doesn't- know how to use a pocketknife safely is deprived of both education and common sense, IMHO.)
It hit me again, listening to the radio the other day: It was mentioned that our government's idea of "airport security" is ignoring potential terrorists in favor of focusing on anything that could possibly be perceived as a weapon. A warm, fuzzy, entirely ineffective sort of security.
Maybe it's just my pessimistic side, but sometimes I get the feeling we really are turning ripe for the picking. Only one thing I can speak to for sure. If I end up having a family, my kids will be taught how not to fear a gun. Or a knife.
yep (Score:2)
Rhings that come to mind:
When I was in highschool, everybody carried a pocket knife and it was pretty much expected that you have one for shop class too.
Just a couple of years ago, my son, at a highschool near the one in the setting above, had a large bolt, found by the railroad tracks, in his car. Apparently a security guard saw it and the Ast. Principle called him to the office and told him to put it in his trunk (pretending to tell him to get rid of it, I think). Also, my son had
Re:yep (Score:2)
ditto (Score:1)
My father in law is an IRS agent
Re:ditto (Score:2)
My stone came with a leather case, an angle guide, and instructions. Moisten the stone with water or honing oil, use the angle guide to set the angle of the blade to the stone, and stroke the blade across the ston
Re:ditto (Score:1)
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Forget pocketknives... (Score:2)
Re:Forget pocketknives... (Score:2)
"Duct tape in the wrong hands is a dangerous weapon," he said, "but so is a hand egg-beater."