A chocolate mess
Aug. 19th, 2006 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurkittyAs a chocolate lover, it is hard to watch Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and not feel like jumping into that river of chocolate. As happens with so many experiences, however, falling into a vat of chocolate is not quite as heavenly as it sounds. A man working in a chocolate factory slipped and was trapped in bubbling, 110° F chocolate. The chocolate acted rather like quicksand, holding him in place until enough could be scooped out that he could, at last, shinny out of his trousers and out of the heavy chocolate.
The US is similarly mired in a vat of zero tolerance policies. Zero tolerance policies are attractive because they are simple to write and easy to enforce. When a policy like "No drugs in the High School" is implemented, everyone thinks it's a great idea. No one thinks about the fact that high school girls get PMS and might need over-the counter pain relievers and that some overzealous principal will interpret the rule to exclude those as drugs.
Nowhere are we more deeply mired than in our nation's airports and airlines, where everything that is said and done is scrutinized with zero tolerance. Which strikes more fear in you: a terrorist attack or inclusion on the mysterious no-fly list? The inhuman, mechanistic decisions that are being made under the guise of safety are truly frightening. Consider the latest incident. A muslim doctor was reciting his evening prayers on a plane. A drunk passenger told the flight crew he was acting suspiciously, and he and his colleagues were kicked off the United flight. They were met by police at the airport, who immediately recognized that the flight crew had overreacted. But the party had to pay for a hotel room and take a flight the next day.
Zero tolerance. No sense. We think we are safer, but we're not. We're just less tolerant.
The US is similarly mired in a vat of zero tolerance policies. Zero tolerance policies are attractive because they are simple to write and easy to enforce. When a policy like "No drugs in the High School" is implemented, everyone thinks it's a great idea. No one thinks about the fact that high school girls get PMS and might need over-the counter pain relievers and that some overzealous principal will interpret the rule to exclude those as drugs.
Nowhere are we more deeply mired than in our nation's airports and airlines, where everything that is said and done is scrutinized with zero tolerance. Which strikes more fear in you: a terrorist attack or inclusion on the mysterious no-fly list? The inhuman, mechanistic decisions that are being made under the guise of safety are truly frightening. Consider the latest incident. A muslim doctor was reciting his evening prayers on a plane. A drunk passenger told the flight crew he was acting suspiciously, and he and his colleagues were kicked off the United flight. They were met by police at the airport, who immediately recognized that the flight crew had overreacted. But the party had to pay for a hotel room and take a flight the next day.
Zero tolerance. No sense. We think we are safer, but we're not. We're just less tolerant.
