-
Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
OT: When does the idiocy stop?
- Thread starter Snuffy
- Start date
K
Ken Stallings
Guest
The really sad fact in this case is that they harrassed the little girl last year! Then, when the public expressed their collective outrage over the obvious abuse of power, the officials relented.
Now, a year later, I guess the same officials think the public will have an entirely different reaction! Judging by the reaction they got the second time, the only change was the visceral level of anger! Will these officials ever learn!
What really stinks is that it's really all about money -- meaning the municipal government wants the money for people to engage in commerce of any type in their area. Sometimes, I think it's no longer any different that a local mafia that walks uninvited into a local business and "asks" for "protection money!" Any good idea can be made a very bad practice through absence of common sense!
When does it change and we as a society get back to common sense? I really don't know.
But I do know that when I was a kid, I sold lemonade and even apples, and I never once had any expectation nor even concept that officials of my local government would actually send law enforcement to shut me down. In fact, I never had any expectation that something bad would happen because I had more trust in the people in my neighborhood, who drove or walked by and did one of only two things.
Either they went by with a smile on their faces thinking how cute it was to see a kid set up something to make a few cents. Or, they stopped and had a lemonade or apple even though they were not thirsty or hungry.
The biggest problem isn't the action, but the outcome of the reaction: For one little girl, the loss of her childhood innocence and the associated dismay of many adults who wonder how all this could have gone so very wrong in the first place!
Ken
Now, a year later, I guess the same officials think the public will have an entirely different reaction! Judging by the reaction they got the second time, the only change was the visceral level of anger! Will these officials ever learn!
What really stinks is that it's really all about money -- meaning the municipal government wants the money for people to engage in commerce of any type in their area. Sometimes, I think it's no longer any different that a local mafia that walks uninvited into a local business and "asks" for "protection money!" Any good idea can be made a very bad practice through absence of common sense!
When does it change and we as a society get back to common sense? I really don't know.
But I do know that when I was a kid, I sold lemonade and even apples, and I never once had any expectation nor even concept that officials of my local government would actually send law enforcement to shut me down. In fact, I never had any expectation that something bad would happen because I had more trust in the people in my neighborhood, who drove or walked by and did one of only two things.
Either they went by with a smile on their faces thinking how cute it was to see a kid set up something to make a few cents. Or, they stopped and had a lemonade or apple even though they were not thirsty or hungry.
The biggest problem isn't the action, but the outcome of the reaction: For one little girl, the loss of her childhood innocence and the associated dismay of many adults who wonder how all this could have gone so very wrong in the first place!
Ken
K
Ken Stallings
Guest
John,
I have to repeat that these officials did this to the very same girl last year and backed away after the town (meaning the people as a group) voiced their outrage.
While doing it twice in two years may get the ordinance changed, I don't think it is the town per se that is learning. Perhaps it takes two knocks upside the head for the officials to get the message!
Folks like you or I wouldn't have needed one rap on the head for this. We belong to that vast group of people who would have gone by with a wide smile or stopped for some lemonade even if we were not thirsty!
Cheers,
Ken
Terry
SOH-CM-2016
Why is it that the majority of ordinary people once elected to public office completely forget who they were? They seem to turn into arrogant, condescending, power hungry tyrants. They don't learn anything except how to grab enough power and money to stay in office. We might be better off governed by a benevolent super computer!
You can apply this to corporate management as well. It's like there's a secret indoctrination meeting and all new inductees have to drink the kool-aid and check their brain at the door.
Terry
SOH-CM-2016
Agree in part, but the corporate world has to show a profit which requires some logic and common sense. That's not required in government!
HouseHobbit
Charter Member
My grandfather once told me:
"You give a "little" man a little power and you end up with a BIG pain in the neck..
But if you give a "Big" man a little power you end up with a Blessing"..
This does seem the case here, "little" people with power are dangerous..
Maybe we should be more careful to whom we give power...
"You give a "little" man a little power and you end up with a BIG pain in the neck..
But if you give a "Big" man a little power you end up with a Blessing"..
This does seem the case here, "little" people with power are dangerous..
Maybe we should be more careful to whom we give power...
Railrunner130
Charter Member
We need to encourage free enterprise in this country, not let the lawyers put out another rediculous beat down. I'm sure if the former was done significantly more often than the latter, this country wouldn't be in a recession.