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A Painful Gift!
We feel it's our duty this week to make our editorial comment about something that is not really political. That's because the State House recently passed a resolution naming April as Organ Donor Month. This is a major step in making each of us more aware of the good we can do for others provided we allow some of our organs to be passed on once we go the way of all flesh.
Yes, it's true. You and I are mortal. When we die, we die…but thanks to medicine's continual progress, parts of our bodies can be used to keep others alive. Hearts, livers, kidneys, eyes, etc., can now be passed on to someone who otherwise might not still be with us if they could not be the recipient of such an organ gift.
We consider it a duty to make mention of this ability to painlessly give someone else a gift… the gift of life. We have it on good authority you won't feel a thing! Not only that, your simple gesture to become a donor might earn you some needed points in the next state, wherever that may be. We belong to that growing group of people who have loved ones who would no longer be with us if they were not rescued from the brink of death by the fact someone had indicated their organs were to be used for that purpose.
So next time you renew your driver's license, make the mark in the box that gives you the grand privilege of bequeathing an extension of life to some needy soul.
More than Bullets Hurt Our Kids!
Bullets fly, children in schoolyards get hurt, and parents justifiably storm the School District demanding more protection from responsible authorities. They want the schools do to do more, the police to increase their presence, to insure the physical safety of their children.
Yet, they are silent about a phenomenon, which has as deadly an effect as a bullet.
This phenomenon plagues our school system every year about this time, always coinciding with the change in weather. It's that time of year when we can say, with little fear of contradiction, that in many of our pubic high schools, more than half of the student body will skip or cut classes after their lunch periods.
It is chronic. It occurs every spring as the first days of pleasant weather seduce our youth. Many of us have gone that route ourselves in years gone by. But, for some reason it was a lot easier for them to them to catch us back then.
Today the safeguards in place don't seem to work at all. Students show no fear of being caught. The schools have little effect on whatever controls individual principals have in place to serve as deterrents. Truancy courts, when first announced, stemmed the flood of students playing hooky. But students have learned how to avoid the detection that gets them caught up in that dragnet.
The most effective deterrent is not in place, parental retribution. A student playing hooky is as much at risk as a student in a schoolyard where bullets are flying.
It is obvious truancy does not prepare them for any future role they may play in society except for trouble. Parents understand this, or should. In the end they'll pay as big a price as if a flying bullet had injured one of their children. Yet, they remain silent! |
