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Common Sense for Dollars

By Frederick Corrigan

Do you remember hearing the phrase, “They don’t teach common sense in schools these days”?

When I was a child, they didn’t have to, because it was taught in the home by the parents.

Some examples of the common sense that we learned were:

When to come in out of the rain.

Maybe it was my fault.

The early bird gets the worm.

Life isn’t always fair.

We were poor, but we learned how to open a savings account at the bank and save a little of what we earned. There weren’t any credit cards in those days, so you bought things when you could pay for them. You don’t spend more then you earn, was a financial common sense that was taught by our parents.

When you sat down for dinner and a hot bowl of soup was placed in front of you, common sense took over. You would dip your spoon into the soup, bring the spoonful of soup up close to your mouth and gently blow on it until the soup was cool enough to eat.

That was THEN, this is NOW!

Today, a woman can fail to realize that a STEAMING cup of coffee is HOT. She spills a little in her lap and gets awarded a huge financial settlement. This is called common sense for dollars!

You awaken to hear someone breaking into your home. You remove the gun from the locked night table, put a clip of bullets into the gun, proceed through the dark hallway into the living room and surprise two men. One man is holding your TV and the second man has your wife’s purse. You yell, “Stop”, they turn to face you and one of them throws a cast iron bookend at you. You fire your pistol, hit one of the burglars in the stomach and everyone freezes in place. Your wife calls the police; the crooks go to trial and eventually to jail.

Wait, I need to wake up, that was THEN, and this is NOW!

The whole scene comes down the same way, until you get into court. Now you have to defend yourself in court, because you assaulted the burglar who was unarmed. Many times, common sense dies when someone cries, “I’m a victim”.

You walk along a country road, darkness is rolling in, you’re walking so that you are facing the oncoming traffic and you step to your left if it appears that a car is coming a little too close to you.

How silly of me, that was 1950, not 2010!

Today, we wear dark clothing, walk with our backs to the traffic, we have our IPod pumping music into our earphones and scream, ”LAWYER”, when we are struck by a car.

Common sense just got exchanged for dollars, because even though you’ll never walk again, that’s what we’ve chosen to accept.

Two fifth grade students are having a fight on the school playground. The teacher sees this, grabs each of the boys by the back of their shirt collar and marches them to the principal’s office, where they will be disciplined.

Stop dreaming, wake up, that was THEN, this is NOW!

First off, the teacher must speak to the little darlings three times and tell them to stop fighting. Don’t touch them unless you ask them at least three times to stop fighting. Now, be very careful how you separate them and escort them to the principal’s office, as you the teacher could be charged with excessive force and child abuse. You the teacher could be fired for reprimanding unruly children as it worsened their condition.

After all, CHILDREN, not ADULTS, are in charge! Just ask their LAWYERS!

Common sense lost ground when parents started suing teachers, for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children!

I’ve seen common sense dying a little more, with the passing of each decade of my life. If that isn’t bad enough, we in America have also been losing Truth and Trust, Discretion, Responsibility and Reason.

In the place of these admirable associates of Common Sense, we now have:

I know my rights.

I want it now.

Someone else is to blame.

I’m a victim, call my Lawyer.

Let’s not forget that your Lawyer just loves the 30% of your financial settlement, they get for being of service to you.

So, as you allow your children to text and drive, ride their bike without a helmet, walk on the wrong side of the road, cross the street when not in a crosswalk, go out in a boat without a life jacket, drink and drive and be disrespectful to adults, brace yourself to exchange Common Sense for Dollars!

You’re the parent, you decide!

Contributor's Note

Commom Sense and Responsibile Disipline are a small price to pay, when compared to the Dollars one may recieve for the loss of a child!

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Thank you for stopping by and for your support, Arthur.
Best to you.
Frederick

Couldn't have said it better myself. I have seen this trend happening for many, many years. The lawsuits and sense of entitlement in society is terrible.

Thank you for your visit and for your comments, Jobo.
Best wishes.
Frederick

I love your comment and I thank you, June. Could we place this before everyone, at the same instant then hold everyone to it? It would be wonderful. Maybe we could start by putting it on every blackboard in every school.
Best to you.
Frederick

That is a very nice and profound piece of writing. In my humble opinion, though, common sense for dollars is a worldwide trend. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

I believe you are right, Elana. Somehow,responsibility for our actions has got to return.
Thank you for visiting and for your comments.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Once again Frederick you hit the nail on the head, it has been said by many generations "I don't know what the world is coming to"! Apparently the Romans said it!
I do agree with you though seems that common sense is very wrongly named, surely it should be rare sense, as not many people have it.
One of the problems seems to be that children are now taught their 'rights', what they aren't taught is that the same rights are also ours!

Thank you for your visit and for your supportative comments, Adrian. I honestly believe that if we keep after it, equal rights will return. The ME generation has to end!!
Best wishes.
Frederick

They claim all the rights under the sun, but accept no responsibility for their actions.

Thank you for visiting and for your kind comments, Peter.
I appreciate your support.
Best wishes.
Frederick

I'll say! But then, I think that throughout all generations the older people told their youngers, "Common sense has been thrown out the window!" It just seems to come easier to us after we are fully cooked.

Well, I'm not sure if I'm fully cooked or as some would say,"Half-Baked". I do believe that responsibility has taken a step backwards.
I appreciate your visit and your comments, Janet.
Best to you.
Frederick

I have to agree with everyone here... your intel gets better and better with each post. Thanks so much!

Thank you for your continued support, Diana. I can't begin to tell everyone how grateful I am for the encouragement that I've received.
Best to you.
Frederick

Discipline was non-negotiable. If dad even thought I deserved a belt across my bottom it was inevitable.

Saying anything only increased the punishment. I'll give you something to cry about was the signal to shut up.

It didn't matter who's fault it was.. we all were gonna get it so I made sure my brother didn't do anything to make him think about it either.

If I didn't eat all your food you got no desert. No exceptions. Today it's whining I don't like this.

Thank you for your visit and for your comments, Franklyn.
Sounds like we had a common type of discipline that got the message accross.
Somewhere between no desert and have all the desert that you want without eating your meal, has to be a correct answer.
Best wishes.
Frederick

I'm back Frederick. I finally had time to figure out how to add a link to my Squidoo lenses. (With a little help from my friends.)

Yes, people are so busy demanding their rights, they forget their responsibilities.
Best wishes,
Laraine

Thank you for stopping by and for your support, Loraine.
I'm still trying to learn about linking my Qondio articles, so I know your struggle.
Best to you.
Frederick

Thank you for visiting and for your support, Sandy.
It's good to hear from you again.
Best to you.
Frederick

Very true observations, Frederick. The problem nowadays is we expect someone else to look out for us, instead of us having to use our own brains to work things out. As for the courts, they are getting crazier and crazier. Now it's the victim who finds himself in the dock.

Thank you for stopping by and for your comments, Geoff.
The other day I was driving up to the entrance of a shopping mall, I looked to my left, here was a local Policeman walking toward the entrance and texting on his cell phone. I had to stop, because he didn't see me. How do we teach children, when we have STUPID Adults?
Best wishes.
Frederick

When parents lack common sense I doubt they can teach it to their children. Sometimes I feel we are doomed for that reason. It seems to grow exponentially. In reality some of it may simply be where we place our attention. I do know families that teach common sense, manners and so forth. They have GREAT kids. Unfortunately it's the others that seize our attention.

Thank you for visiting and for your comments, Christina. When the parents are constantly engaged with their cell phones, what can we expect from the children. Unfortunately, many will die texting and driving, before society wakes up.
Best wishes.
Frederick

You are so right on this. They have us baby boomers to blame for not wanting to be like our parents.

Respect for one another, has to come back, Sandy. Parents have to be parents and set the examples for responsibility.
Best to you.
Frederick

Here's one for you... My fiancé and were driving down the highway. I noticed a woman not driving with the flow of traffic. She'd speed up and slow down and was weaving constantly. I sped up a little bit so that I could see if she was ok. When I caught up to her I looked over to see her driving with the balls of her wrists so that she could have both hands free to text message on her cell phone. I then noticed, in the back of her car, an occupied baby seat. If she'd plowed into the back of someone, she'd probably have said "they came out of no where!" and cried victim-- "They killed my baby!", she'd exlaim. I think Bill Engvall's theory is correct. Stupid people should have to wear signs. With this made into a law I hereby cast my vote that stupid people should not be able to file lawsuits or influence the legal system or political powers that be. "What do you mean I can't cast my vote?", I'd say as I attempted to covered up my own sign. ;)

Most of us do something stupid at some point in our lives, John. We can only consider ourselves luck, if we don't hurt someone else with our stupidity. I vote that stupid people should wear signs.
Thank you for you support.
Best wishes.
Frederick

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