No Common Sense

We hear it all the time -- society needs common sense. 

No one should have to tell the driver to respond when a child is having a seizure on a bus.  But apparently that is what has happened in Florida when a 16-year-old was having a diabetes-induced seizure as he was going home.  His sister, 14, told the driver what was happening and tried to help her brother but he did nothing.

When the bus arrived at their stop, the driver told them to get out, leaving the boy on the side of the road still having a seizure and his sister alone to deal with the emergency.  Paramedics were called, responded and the boy spent a couple of days in intensive care.  Wow.

So now the school district is "reviewing their policies" about the whole incident, and amazingly, the tape that should have recorded everything is blank.  Hmmmmm.

The use of the phrase, "reviewing their policies," is a polite euphemism for "the driver messed up big time and we're trying to figure out a way to come out looking good."  Or in other words, try to spin the story.  So they'll check their policy statements and see that indeed there is no mention of how to handle a child having a seizure, and so they'll add it in the policy statement.  NOW the driver will know what to do if it happens again.  Really?

These days the drivers almost always have some kind of communication on board the bus.  The paramedics could have been called and met the bus along the route at any point. 

The story smacks of a very uncaring attitude and an unwillingness to see the students as real people with real problems.  People don't want to have a seizure.  They don't ask for a seizure, but they do happen, and they aren't a trifling little thing. 

We'll see what happens with this story, but I bet my prediction is 100% true. 

So that's the end of this particular commentary.

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Next, we have the hoarders.  I saw one of the programs the other day and still feel like I should clean the house.  It's disgusting and I know there is a psychological reason but it still makes no sense to me.  Why would someone not be able to sort through a pile of trash and get rid of 99% of it?  Why would someone want to live with so much junk that the house is a nothing more than series of narrow passageways through the piles?

The daughter of the one hoarder had been living with her aunt for a couple of years to escape the mess.  She has a car.  Her mother, the hoarder, lives in an expensive house with the piles of trash.  The girl wants to return home but she wants her mother to clean up.  And then she said something that bothered me -- that her mother was obligated to provide a place for her.  I think the girl is out of high school.  Now, if she's not, then she has a point.  But if she's graduated and past 18, her mother is not obligated.  The hoarding for this girl was more of an inconvenience for HER rather than a concern that she might have for her mother.  And the way she talked to her mother did not include a measure of respect -- she lectured her mother and talked down to her. 

The "all about me" thinking that poisons our world. 

One thing I did learn about hoarders is that their problems don't start overnight, but the exacerbation of the problem is usually triggered by a big event that is traumatic.  Like any other illness, the best time to treat it is when it first starts and we don't seem to do that too well. 

Well, that's enough for today.  I'm sorry that today's posting isn't all that rosy. 

Take care and let's think happy thoughts of spring flowers and birds and butterflies, okay?  And honestly, I'm in a GOOD frame of mind.

Karen