The End of Personal Responsibility.

[greygirlbeast]

This from The Providence Journal (Saturday, August 12, 2006):

The town of Milford, Conn., has announced that three beautiful towering hickory trees on a street are being chopped down, because one child in the area is allergic to hickory nuts. The town was driven by fear of litigation spawned by a letter from Una Glennon, a grandmother of the child.

Must we move all children into a sealed, air-conditioned vault so that they won't face anything that might be dangerous? Perhaps all buildings over ten feet high should also be banned — a child might fall out the window. Or all vegetation.

Must the great mass of people suffer just because one person has a problem — and often a lawyer, or one waiting in the wings? Let us hope that the people of Milford in the future demand that their rights be given some attention.

Mr. [Philip] Howard put it eloquently in op-ed he wrote on this idiotic situation for the New York Times ("A Tree Falls in Connecticut," July 30th):

"Running a society requires the ability to make choices based on an honest assessment of the tradeoffs in each case, often balancing an individual's predicament against the common good....legal threats put a thumb on the scale and drive decisions toward the lowest common denominator."

I do urge you to read Mr. Howard's editorial by following the link above, as it contains a good deal more information and is better written than this bit I've quoted from The Providence Journal. I should also note that Howard is a lawyer. It goes without saying that I find this affair sickening. Three mature trees were murdered because one child's parents and guardians were unwilling to take full responsibility for its welfare. I must wonder if Milford supermarkets will now stop carrying peanut putter and dried almonds, since, after all this child will be risking its life by entering nut-tainted markets. Will the child's school now demand that no student may bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, since Glennon's grandchild might conceivably come into contact with such a deadly sandwich? If you think these questions are absurd, read Howard's op-ed for some equally bizarre and real-world examples of the lengths that some cities have already gone to in an effort to avoid frivolous lawsuits and convert the world into a great every-child-safe environment.

Comments

[krasota.livejournal.com]

As someone with life-threatening food allergies, I'm also sickened. Hickory nuts aren't related to any of the nuts the child allegedly has an allergy to. The family never provided proof of an allergy to hickory nuts. The grandmother previously petitioned (unsuccessfully) to have the trees removed because they were making a mess of her pool. Why the heck can't she build an awning if she's so darn concerned about her pool?

I don't have a problem with school bans on tree nut and peanut products--contact reactions to peanut residue can be life-threatening and every child has a right to an education. I do, however, think that removal of the trees was ridiculous.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with school bans on tree nut and peanut products--contact reactions to peanut residue can be life-threatening and every child has a right to an education.

Follow this to its logical conclusion: if "tree nut and peanut products" are banned (and that's a pretty big class of products), then what about other common and not-so-common allergens? What about wheat? Many people have serious wheat allergies. And what about soy? And seafood? And tomatoes and strawberries? Dairy? And I'm sure that's only scratching the surface.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

The key is contact/airborne. Peanut allergies are often incredibly severe, for reasons not well understood. The residue of PB is oily. It's very hard to scrub off with the cursory handwashing most children (and many adults) do. It's not an easily denatured protein, for whatever reasons. If a child doesn't have a contact allergy to peanut or a reaction to airborne vapors (which contain molecules of the allergenic protein), there's no reason to have a peanut ban.

Most food allergies don't have a contact/airborne aspect. In fact, inhalation reactions are incredibly rare. In those rare cases, it does make sense to have a ban, but the reaction history should be well documented. A food ban certainly isn't always appropriate, but there are rare cases where it just makes sense. And yes, there are logistical issues, cost issues, and all sorts of factors to consider, but in the end, the life of a child is more important than a food choice.

Strict avoidance of a food allergen early on can lead to the child outgrowing the allergy. This is probably yet another reason why more parents push for limits on peanuts in elementaries than in high school. Of course, older children are able to take more responsibility for their food choices. They're also more likely to take risks, so a ban wouldn't really be effective at that age.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

the life of a child is more important than a food choice.

That's debatable.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

And note that it's not the kid who's making the complaint, but his grandmother. Sadly, I deal with these sorts of dolts on a daily basis at work: the parents or grandparents want us to give special concessions to kids, usually by bellowing "they's got babies out there", because Will-Work-For-Food Junior thought that paying the meth bill was more important than paying the electric bill. "Whah cain't yew turn on the power? They's gawt thirtuh-three kids, and thaiy'll all freeze to death if they cain't watch Spongebob!" (Quite literally, I had one granny call up and threaten me personally if I didn't turn her grandkids' power back on solely so they could watch Spongebob Squarepants, and I get plenty of threats of legal action because Will-Work-For-Food Junior passed three bad checks in a row, found himself blocked from paying through our service, and now Granmaw has to take time away from callin' in the hawgs to bypass that fact.) Combine entitlement, arrogance, an expectation of being able to get away with anything by shrieking the words "senior citizen", and a complete lack of anything to keep them off the streets and out of trouble, and you have a perfect description of the typical meddling granny.

(Now, I understand complaining against legitimate issues, but Dallas is full of entitlement brats of this sort who know what they're getting into when they move into a new neighborhood and then expect the rules to be changed permanently just for them. And it's always "about the children" and not "about acontrol freak who has one last shot at power before Hell reclaims its own.")

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

Dallas is full of entitlement brats of this sort who know what they're getting into when they move into a new neighborhood and then expect the rules to be changed permanently just for them. And it's always "about the children" and not "about a control freak who has one last shot at power before Hell reclaims its own."

Too true. Let's going drinking sometime & burn the city down. I want to exercise my god-given right to drink Mickey's tall boys & wield a can of gasoline.

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

but Dallas is full of entitlement brats of this sort who know what they're getting into when they move into a new neighborhood and then expect the rules to be changed permanently just for them.

Not sure about the Dallas part or not (I've no idea where she's from), but you just spot-on described my neighbor who would also qualify for the "attention-whore/drama queen" crown.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

"The effort to shield the child here from the dangers of nuts might also be counterproductive. The child will have to learn to cope in a world full of nuts, if not in his grandmother’s backyard, then with the remaining hickory trees that line the street"

Or, more acutely, the nut living in his grandmother's house.

[cause-catyljan.livejournal.com]

Being epileptic my family and I are calling for an all out ban on televisions and other display screen equipment in the Greater London area. I can't run the risk of going tonic-clonic whenever I walk past a shop window or sit down and type out comments on an online blogging site about how fucking retarded and manipulative some people can be.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo. Connecticut, represent!

I've always held this image in my head of peanuts rising up a la the hunter-seekers in Dune to converge on the unsuspecting nut-allergy child kill for the kill. At least, that's what I imagine fills the heads of people like loony grandmother.

Scenic and important trees getting cut due to some fool's dislike of that tree in that place is pretty commonplace up here. Indeed in the more rural areas, people will sometimes wait until the owners of the property containing the offending tree are out of town and stage a chainsaw raid. The fact that this woman is using her grandson as a proxy in all of this is really a new level of asinine.

The poor kid's probably going to catch hell on the bus for this, too.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

The poor kid's probably going to catch hell on the bus for this, too.

Hell in the form of peanuts thrown from every direction, probably. It's going to be like the trail mix version of Carrie.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Hell in the form of peanuts thrown from every direction, probably. It's going to be like the trail mix version of Carrie.

Thank you. That's the first time I've laughed today.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I commented, then.

You're in the new Boschen and Nesuko again, by the way. Though you're wearing a veil.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Indeed in the more rural areas, people will sometimes wait until the owners of the property containing the offending tree are out of town and stage a chainsaw raid.

That's horrific. Really.

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

If all these tree-hating morons would build their own tree-free subdivision, we'd all be happier. They could have their little patch of concrete, or chemically-controlled lawn (maintained by someone else, of course). The rest of us can have those wonderfully messy, and occasionally unpredictable (limb crashing through your roof) trees.

I had one utility worker try to convince me a pine needed removing because "a keeeed maht hurt hisself climbin' it". I told him the little lard-asses around here never left their Playstations long enough to realize there was such a thing as climbing trees. That didn't make him happy. Neither did the Sheriff escort off our property. :-D The tree is still here.

The guy behind us hates trees because they shed leaves all over the place. Another neighbor hates them because they attract birds that poop on the car. I plant one every chance I get.

[shadowmeursault.livejournal.com]

and here i was, thinking that personal responsibility ended with lawsuits against gun makers, tobacco companies and mcdonald's for serving hot coffee. little did i imagine there would be MUCH more room for acting moronic and passing the buck.
idaho is the perfect place for such asinine sentiments. grows here on trees. or it did, until they cut them all down. i never could decide if the original letter was a joke...

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A161182

"Aristophanes would have thought our own culture obsessed, even to the point of demoralization, with pity, fear and guilt; we may think his culture complacent, ruthless, narrow and rigid in its loyalites. It is too late for him to learn anything from us." -- K.J. Dover

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

It is too late for him to learn anything from us.

Absofrellinglutely.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

In a similar vein, five meerkats at the Minneapolis Zoo recently had to be destroyed because a nine-year-old girl managed to get her hand inside the enclosure - then, when bitten, refused to have her rabies shots.

http://www.mnzoo.org/guests/ZooNews/meerkats.asp

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/15202942.htm

The exhibit was closed for a week, and the names of the girl and her parents have not been made public. I hope the parents are, at the very least, paying to have the meerkats replaced - and only wish the zookeepers could have put photos of the family in the cage in the interim, and sent copies to the gate staff of every zoo in the country with the warning "These animals are dangerous!"

[scarerica.livejournal.com]

That sounds an awful lot like what happened to our black bears at Maymont Park, except in this case the parent actually assisted the kid in "petting the bear."