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One of the most important projects I'm helping with right now is the Safe Schools Law. Most of you are, like me, self-confessed geeks and proud of it. You know why this is important.
Imagine you're a teenager again. Imagine you get your butt kicked on a regular basis by other kids at school and face constant intimidation and harrassment. As a teenager you may not be able to quote Rousseau about the Social Contract, but I'll bet you anything at some level you understand you're not in it. You might have no respect for what society asks in return, if society can't protect you from getting your butt kicked on a regular basis. Or you might just despair. Anybody in that situation would start thinking very seriously about taking the law into their own hands, or killing themselves. Some kids do. Matt Epling killed himself, and that's why this legislation is called Matt's Safe Schools Law.
I'm not saying those actions are right. There are better ways to fix it. But until we as a society offer protection, what more do we realistically expect? They lack the experience and resourcefulness to solve the problem constructively like an adult because, well, they're not adults. Criteria number one for calling any arrangement "civilization" is that nobody kicks someone else's ass with impunity. As long as we really are giving somebody the law of the jungle, what do they owe us?
That's why I've spent this week in the offices of The Triangle Foundation researching contact info to spread the word about Safe Schools Lobby Day. Hundreds of volunteers are going to go to Lansing on March 28 to personally visit the offices of their elected officials and ask them to pass the Safe Schools Law.
Matt Epling, 1988-2002
Imagine you're a teenager again. Imagine you get your butt kicked on a regular basis by other kids at school and face constant intimidation and harrassment. As a teenager you may not be able to quote Rousseau about the Social Contract, but I'll bet you anything at some level you understand you're not in it. You might have no respect for what society asks in return, if society can't protect you from getting your butt kicked on a regular basis. Or you might just despair. Anybody in that situation would start thinking very seriously about taking the law into their own hands, or killing themselves. Some kids do. Matt Epling killed himself, and that's why this legislation is called Matt's Safe Schools Law.
I'm not saying those actions are right. There are better ways to fix it. But until we as a society offer protection, what more do we realistically expect? They lack the experience and resourcefulness to solve the problem constructively like an adult because, well, they're not adults. Criteria number one for calling any arrangement "civilization" is that nobody kicks someone else's ass with impunity. As long as we really are giving somebody the law of the jungle, what do they owe us?
That's why I've spent this week in the offices of The Triangle Foundation researching contact info to spread the word about Safe Schools Lobby Day. Hundreds of volunteers are going to go to Lansing on March 28 to personally visit the offices of their elected officials and ask them to pass the Safe Schools Law.
Matt Epling, 1988-2002
