Getting Tough On . . . Being Human

To Err Is Human – and A Chargeable Offense

So many mistakes seem to find their illogical extreme in Texas. The Guardian reports,

Children have been arrested for possessing cigarettes, wearing “inappropriate” clothes and being late for school.

Don’t Mess With Texas!

It’s as if the only good child must be a Stepford child in Texas: never questioning authority, never bending or breaking rules, never asserting themselves. Violent criminal behavior is entirely different, and should be punished, just as it is on the streets or, say, a professional sports field. But a zero tolerance policy for normal childhood behavior will not foster good behavior – at least not in our species. It will cause resentment, a sense of powerlessness or ruthlessness. I think they may be shooting for powerlessness and compliance without question.

This policy is like if every parent decided that the only appropriate correction for any infraction, no matter how minor, is a spanking. But that is exactly what we as a country have been doing with adults, too: if a perpetrator isn’t sent to jail for every offense, we want the judges removed from the bench, and we want politicians in the next election to promise to get tougher. No wonder we fear Sharia law: we see in ourselves a tendency to cut off the hands of those who steal a peach.

Getting tougher does not always get us the results we seek. I know that, and I’m not even a parent. Every parent who kept raising the stakes to try to get compliance from their child knows that. How is it that Texas, and American, lawmakers don’t get that?

And why did Senator Jim Webb, who wanted to champion prison reform, decide to leave the Senate?