Two news reports from Pennsylvania within past two days:
1. Gov. Tom Wolf introduces bill to reduce campus sexual assault. Bill requires colleges to publish specific requirements for consent. Silence no longer equals consent, it now equals refusal. Apparently students must ask for consent for each stage of sexual contact, and must await specific consent before proceeding. That any sane person believes young people will abide by such absurd regulations is a tribute to how leftism impairs logical thinking.
2. Woman raped on crowded commuter train. Passengers take videos but do not call 911 or intervene over several minutes. Railway employee is only one to call 911. When police board train at next station, they must pull naked rapist off the victim. That human beings could be so apathetic and amoral is a tribute to how big government gives people the notion that only the government should take action, while people have no responsibility except to obey orders and shut up.
At first glance, these two stories are unrelated, even contradictory. The governor wants to protect college students, mainly women, from unwanted sex by loading sex with a host of regulations. But the people on the train couldn’t care less about a woman being raped. On second thought, the two stories are regrettably parallel.
The more we become nearsighted and focus on minutiae, the less we can see the big picture and recognize approaching danger.
The more we pass laws micromanaging people’s lives, the less we consider the Ten Commandments.
The more the government makes us afraid to do anything that might be considered offensive, the more we are afraid to confront the truly offensive.
The more the government makes us afraid to confront it, the more we are afraid to confront anyone, no matter how egregious or even criminal the behavior.
The more the government spreads fear – fear of sex, fear of viruses, fear of saying the wrong thing – the more people are afraid to do anything at all. Frightened, timid people make good subjects but poor citizens.
