Getting Schooled

April 4, 2019

We are getting our daily dose of what happens when you bribe school officials to get your lil' darlins enrolled.

Media outlets are having a field day showing Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin marching in and out of court, the latest iterations accompanied with headlines proclaiming that these two -- along with many others who have been in this crass-for-class crisis -- likely will be headed for prison.

It got me wondering about how we as a society punish offenders. After all, didn't we just let a guy -- a black, gay celebrity to boot -- off the hook for the time being who mesmerized an entire nation with a fake news story that tossed grenades into the racial-and-political divide bonfire? While we scratch our heads over that debacle, here comes a group of well-heeled adults whose Johnnies and Suzies apparently needed a little extracurricular help to get into the school of their parents' choice.

Sure, I got a kick out the mess they made for themselves. They needed to be outed, embarrassed and sent in front of a judge to do something useful like creating a fund for those who don't have anyone illegally prying open doors.

Putting them in jail? That's a bit much, don't you think? We give second chances to youngsters who just happen to get involved in car jacking and armed robbery because, after all, they are part of a disadvantaged class that didn't know any better and influenced by others.

In a world where we give a break to the poor underclass who we assume don't know that it's wrong to wave a gun a person's face, maybe we should assume that those with apparent privilege have the distinct disadvantage of not knowing that it's wrong to wave cash in the face of college reps.

NOTE: This may not be everyone's favorite notion, so let me put it this way: Why not expect the same decency toward others no matter one's lot in life?

Maybe the real problem is that not enough of us are being properly schooled at a young age where it counts by parents or other significant adults. That blind spot generates many problems as well as one significantly unfortunate purpose --to feed the appetite of some media outlets whose sole purpose, it seems, is to draw sharper edges around our differences.