“The key lesson here is if we are to intervene, we need a solid idea not only of the benefits of our interventions but also the harm we may cause…”
- Shane Parrish
My daughter loves hiking. She’d rather spend her Saturday walking through the woods than watching TV or playing video games. Now, her forest fixation has very little to do with her mom or me, except that Amy signed her up for summer camp instead of daycare for summers after school gets out. If she hadn’t, we might never have discovered just how much our little girl loves the outdoors.
That’s the short way of telling you I’ve recently taken up hiking. On my last excursion, I made three choices that would prove… problematic. First, I left my glasses in the car. I don’t really need glasses to see except for far away and they’re really only super helpful at night when I’m driving. It’s summertime and they slip down my face when I sweat. So I left them.
Second, I took a side trail – not an official trail – because the main trail has a staircase that is closed for repairs. It’s been closed for repairs for so long the side trail has broken beer bottles littered along it. I’ve taken it and never had a problem before.
Third, I saw a flurry of larger flies along the trail ahead. They could have been small bees, but I took this trail a week ago and didn’t think it was likely. I figured if they were bees I’d walk to the far side of the trail because if I don’t disturb them they’ll leave me alone… right?
They weren’t bees. They were small wasps. I’m allergic to wasps. And they were supremely unhappy I was remotely near them. Thankfully, I was only stung once.
As I sit with a marvelously swollen ankle and write to you, I remember so many good quotes and sayings. I chose the one above because it fits my situation. Intervening in my medical care, circumventing a marked path, and disturbing wasps, all caused harm. Any deviation from those choices would avoid harm.
The same applies to our Illinois government. The “SAFE-T” Act goes into effect next month. Not one of our local legislatures who voted for this joke of a law has articulated how or even if they anticipated the harm it could cause.
And that’s just one law. Governor Pritzker just signed 40 more, and I’ll bet, all the money in my pockets, against all the money in your pockets that the legislators who voted for those laws paid the same “careful attention” to the consequences that they did with the “SAFE-T” Act.
Well, that’s not worthy of an elected official; it’s not worthy of you or me. It’s not worthy of the great state of Illinois. Heck, it’s not worthy of America.
A swollen ankle is a fair price to pay for personal stupidity. Forcing voters to suffer violent crime… there’s no excuse for that.
