What Cub Scout's Saga Says About Our Society
Sea Goat
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Poor Zachary Christie. He's the 6-year-old boy who was suspended for
bringing a "dangerous weapon" to school last week: a camping utensil that
consists of a combination of a spoon, fork and knife. Although the
"charges" against Zachary have now been revisited, after much public
embarrassment for a school system that can't differentiate between a
hoodlum with a real weapon and a child with an eating utensil, the reality
of a culture that often has knowledge without wisdom, remains.
It's the same mentality that renders TSA officials unable to make a
distinction between Middle-Eastern looking males and blonde grandmothers
in wheelchairs at airport checkpoints.
Zachary Christie will likely survive the trauma of being branded a
terrorist threat at school. But a culture that can't make common sense
judgments and distinctions, and instead blindly follows the letter of the
law often at the expense of its intent, will continue to produce weird
outcomes like this one.