Hot Buttons & Two Tiny Bits Of Common Sense

Looking out at our big, beautiful, and exciting world and the multicultural, multifaceted, and multidimensional society that we’ve built on it, one occasionally sees that there are spots of ugliness.

Some of these spots of ugliness are “natural” in the sense that we have little or no control over them. For example, tornadoes ripped through north-central Texas last night with little warning and at last count at least six people were dead, hundreds are hurt, thousands are homeless, damage is in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Here in Los Angeles we’re no strangers to earthquakes. Other parts of the world have blizzards, tsunami, hurricanes, floods, and so on. As a society we do what we can to give warnings to those in danger when we can and to be ready to aid when disaster strikes, but generally there’s not a lot of “evil” associated with natural disasters.

Some spots of ugliness in the world are the result of what the majority of us can all mutually agree on as “evil”. World War II comes to mind, as do countless other wars and conflicts, terrorist acts, genocides, atrocities, murders, rapes, and so on. Lots of nastiness, evil should be fought at every turn — but that’s not what today’s rant is about.

For me, a couple of real “hot button” items are the spots of ugliness caused not by “evil” people but by stupid, misguided, ignorant, irresponsible, and sanctimonious people. The sort of ugliness that Phillip K. Howard referred to as “The Death Of Common Sense” (an excellent book, highly recommended).  In the last couple of weeks, two of these incidents in particular have hit the news and the best thing I’ve heard today is that both of them appear to have been resolved with common sense carrying the day.

In the first incident, it was reported May 7th that a Northville, Michigan parent was calling for the banning of Anne Frank’s “The Diary Of A Young Girl” from schools in Michigan due to “pornographic” content.

I’ll just wait here for you to pick your jaw up off the floor. (*whistles for a bit*) OK?

I’ve read “The Diary Of A Young Girl” of course and knew what the mother in question was talking about. Anne Frank was a young teenager, writing a diary in hellish conditions, while also going through puberty. There is a passage of a couple of paragraphs in which she describes her self-exploration of her own body and the changes happening to it. The mother in question told the local press, “It’s pretty graphic, and it’s pretty pornographic for seventh-grade boys and girls to be reading.”

Interestingly, she also said, “It doesn’t mean my child is sheltered, it doesn’t mean I live in a bubble, and it doesn’t mean I’m trying to ban books.” I’ll repeat, she said this as she’s trying to ban a book. A book which is considered by almost everyone else on this planet to be a classic piece of literature, especially for teenagers. I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree on her claims about what her complaint means and doesn’t mean.

Perhaps we could review what “pornography” means. Mirriam-Webster defines it as “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement”. Assuming that the parent in question had actually read the book that she was complaining about, can she explain to us what part of the passage in question was “erotic” or “intended to cause sexual excitement”? I would use words like “clinical” or “descriptive” but never “erotic”.

Anyway, I tried to get over this last week and move on. This morning word comes that common sense has reared its ugly head in Michigan and the school committee in question has voted unanimously to keep the book in the school curriculum. I, for one, would like to commend Robert D.G. Behnke and the Northville, Michigan school committee for their actions, particularly for the unanimous vote and for the thoughtful letter they sent to the local parents. Their letter is just awash with other common sense suggestions, such as getting the parents to be more involved in understanding what their kids are reading and learning and giving them choices if they have objections.

You rock, Northville, Michigan!!

Meanwhile, down in Florida, Kiera Wilmot was suspended from high school and arrested on two felony counts of discharging a destructive device and possessing a weapon on campus. What was her crime? She tried a simple science experiment on campus (admittedly without authorization or a teacher’s guidance), mixing a common household cleaning product and aluminum foil, which generated gas and caused the top of a plastic soda bottle to pop off.

How many people were hurt? None.

How much damage was done? None.

What was the total effect of her curiosity? A sound like a firecracker and a plastic top from a plastic soda bottle flew a few feet through the air and hit the ground. (That demon gravity will get you every time!)

By all accounts Kiera is an excellent student, never been in trouble. So what should be the common sense response to this event by the authorities?

I might suggest a stern warning to not do it again without having a science teacher supervising, and enrollment in an advanced chemistry class so she can exercise her curiosity. Maybe an honors class so she can stretch herself academically. Maybe a science fair project under the help and supervision of the high school science teachers. Maybe mentoring her in case she needs help getting a freakin’ scholarship, acceptance to a good college, and a career as a scientist?!

Nope.

The Florida authorities, including the school administration (which I always thought was supposed to be helping her to LEARN) suspended her from school, started expulsion proceedings, and called the police. The police arrested her, led her off campus in handcuffs, and charged with two felonies.

Again, go retrieve that jaw of yours, you look silly with it hanging down like that. I’ll wait.

Fortunately, in today’s electronic and instantly connected world, this story hit the tech / nerd / science / geek community pretty hard and pretty fast, so there was plenty of righteous indignation expressed by those far more well spoken and influential then I am.

One of my first thoughts when I heard about it was Homer Hickham‘s story, told in his book “Rocket Boys” and turned into the movie “October Sky” (a truly fantastic film, highly recommended). In the late 50’s Dr. Hickham and his high school friends were growing up in a small town in West Virginia where the only career path open to them was work in the coal mines, just like their fathers and grandfathers had worked in the coal mines. The Rocket Boys wanted more and did self-taught experiments in rocketry that led them to winning local and national science fairs, getting scholarships, going to college, and in Dr. Hickham’s case,  to working for NASA training space shuttle crews.

It turns out that Dr. Hickham heard about the story of Kiera Wilmot also – he’s providing her with a scholarship. [18:15 Update – For clarification, Dr. Hickham has offered to pay Kiera’s fees to go to Space Camp, not a college scholarship. A fantastic and generous offer!]

But as good as that news is, word comes today that, again, common sense has reared its ugly head and the charges against Kiera have been dropped.

It may be that the school administration and local district attorney are doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Or perhaps they’re simply bowing to the weight of the scrutiny, criticism, and embarrassment that has been brought down on them by the news coverage. Considering that their first reaction (prior to public scrutiny) was to suspend Kiera and press for felony charges, I’m kind of leaning toward that second explanation, but that might just be me.

Two tiny triumphs by common sense in one day? Maybe it’s a sign — but I wouldn’t hold my breath.