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A New Commentary Each Wednesday          March 5, 2014


IN MEMORIAM

Today, we again mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were lost long ago in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered in eulogies as having cultivated lessons such as:

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense's health declined even further when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. 

Then came news of the woman who spilled hot coffee she had picked up at a drive-through in her lap and was awarded a massive settlement by a jury. Those who wrote his obituary declared this was the tipping point in the ever-weakening condition of Common Sense.

Learned physicians began to consider his maladies incurable when some churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live when he learned of the growing incidence of teen-age pregnancies: babies having babies. 

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; by his wife, Discretion; by his daughter, Responsibility; and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his stepbrothers:

Not many attended his funeral, for so few realized he was gone.

My thanks to an old friend, Ralph Oglesby, for forwarding the inspiration for this essay: An obituary of an old and trusted friend, published first in the London Times.

-Phil Richardson, Storyteller and Observer of the Human Condition.


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