Kids these days are embracing all over the place. Boys with boys, girls with girls, hetero-hugs, menage-a-hugs. It's all good with teens. Who knew the text-message and
Facebook generation was capable of expressing so much physical affection? (Or perhaps it's exactly
because they spend so much time interacting with techno-toys that good old-fashioned physical contact with their peers is so desirable?)
Apparently, it's not only a hot new trend, it's also a somewhat controversial one. According to the article, several schools have banned hugging in the hallways, perhaps fearing sexual harassment, peer pressure, encouraging too relaxed of an academic atmosphere, disco dermatitis, rabies, and/or a virulent outbreak of
cooties.
I get that. But is it ethical for schools to impose such bans?
There's a lot of chatter on the 'net today about the lottery. Seems someone from South Dakota just won the
Florida lottery, to the tune of 222 million dollars.
Nice going.
I'm sure that unnamed person will suddenly have a lot of new friends--and second cousins once removed--coming out of the woodwork. But how about the other fifty kazillion losing tickets people shelled out money for?
Are they the victims of some unethical, predatory scheme on the part of the state?
There have been a lot of arguments over the years that lotto victimizes those who can least afford it. (I found an interesting, if one-sided dissection of the arguments regarding the immorality of lotto in a random article
in an Arkansas religious publication. Check it out if you want to read some of them.) The basic gist is that poor people are scammed into throwing their hard-earned money away, and the state shouldn't be preying on them.
I disagree, and here's why.
Over the past couple of weeks, the news has been filled with headlines about 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, a Minnesota boy diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Citing religious grounds (the family are members of the Nemenhah Band of Native Americans, who are proponents of natural healing methods), the boy and his mother began refusing chemotherapy after a single treatment. The Brown County court stepped in and ordered treatment to resume. When he and his mother Colleen lost their court appeal, they went on the run. They returned Monday after a week in hiding to face a custody hearing.
The ethical implications of this story are legion. Let's start by naming just a few.
- Does a minor have a right to refuse medical treatment on any grounds, religious or otherwise?
- Does a parent have the right to decide to refuse treatment for his or her child on religious grounds?
- Does the state have a right to overturn personal choice in either a minor or an adult?
- Does the state have a right to take custody of a child under these circumstances?
Complicating this story are several factors.
This Memorial Day Weekend has been a long and busy one for my family. My brother's wedding took place (yippie! Mazel Tov, guys) so I spent the last three days in a flurry of bachelorette parties, rehearsals, rehearsal dinners, and finally the main event. Then today my husband had a good friend of his over for brunch. It was so much fun.
Afterward I collapsed on the couch and slept for two hours, and I am NOT a nap person. If I were a kid (like my nephew's 10-year-old friends who were running around in circles on the dance floor for 3 hours last night) you'd say I was over-stimulated and needed a timeout.
That's about the size of it. I'm one of those types who will happily spend (or perhaps waste is a better word) a whole weekend sofa-surfing, baking cupcakes, all-around puttering. I often look up at the end of a Sunday evening surprised to discover myself still in Friday's lounging sweats, nothing accomplished beyond the next level in
Lego Indiana Jones on my
Nintendo Wii.
Nothin' wrong with that, right?
Well, that depends.
Schadenfreude
-noun
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.
I once had a boss so mean I woke up in dread each morning, and lay awake every night fearfully, fantasizing about what terrors lay ahead for me the next day. She belittled me, berated me, treated me with contempt--even called me stupid to my face. She criticized the quality of my work and made it impossible for me to do my job well. She was mercurial and temperamental and I never knew when she'd snap at me for no reason at all.
I'm sure we've all had one of those.
Anyway, she used to make me open and photocopy her private bank statements and investment portfolio information. This practice made me uncomfortable, as I could see all of her private income, but I did what I was asked. Finally, the day came when I quit--rather precipitously, as a matter of fact, and I tried to put the whole experience behind me.
Until Bernard Madoff made the news.
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