news & Commentary
Common Good's Society Watch is a collection of recent news and commentary illustrating how law is undermining
our common institutions and our freedom to use common sense.
CG in the News is your source for recent news about Common Good and our efforts to restore
common sense to American law.
The most recent articles from each section appear below. SocietyWatch Parents Fight for Diabetic Kids' Rights
Carolyn Starks, Chicago Tribune, December 8, 2008
Carolyn Starks of the Chicago Tribune reports that the over-bureaucratization of schools and their fear of lawsuits has now extended to diabetics and the treatment of their condition. Emblematic of this trend is the story she relates of a suburban Chicago mother who had to drive every two hours to her son’s elementary school to test his blood sugar, as the school considered his blood-testing device’s lancet – “the smallest needle in the world” – a weapon and wouldn’t allow it on the bus. Starks adds that liability fears have caused other districts to ban diabetics from extracurricular activities and sports teams absent the presence of a nurse or guardian. » article
Parents Fight for Diabetic Kids' Rights
Carolyn Starks, Chicago Tribune, December 8, 2008
Carolyn Starks of the Chicago Tribune reports that the over-bureaucratization of schools and their fear of lawsuits has now extended to diabetics and the treatment of their condition. Emblematic of this trend is the story she relates of a suburban Chicago mother who had to drive every two hours to her son’s elementary school to test his blood sugar, as the school considered his blood-testing device’s lancet – “the smallest needle in the world” – a weapon and wouldn’t allow it on the bus. Starks adds that liability fears have caused other districts to ban diabetics from extracurricular activities and sports teams absent the presence of a nurse or guardian. » article
Are We Too Afraid of Touch?
Julia Neuberger, Sunday Times (UK), December 7, 2008
Julia Neuberger writes in the
United Kingdom’s Sunday Times that society’s constant “advice to be watchful” is making the Kingdom’s citizens afraid. “It makes us shrink into ourselves,” she writes. “We become unkind, unconcerned for others, and our children become terrified of the outside world.” Of particular concern to Neuberger is the growing “aversion to innocent physical contact,” evidenced by hospital employees being “told not to put an arm round patients to comfort them lest it be viewed as assault” and the recent case of a bricklayer who chose not to intervene when he saw a wayward two-year-old walking down the road for fear that “people would think he was trying to abduct her.” The girl, who had broken free from her nursery school, later drowned. Neuberger argues that the
UK’s collective fear stems from three sources: “fear of being sued,” “fear of what others might think,” and fear of children being injured, killed, or abducted. Yet, whether these concerns are real or imagined, she warns of the dangers of being consumed by them. “If we aren’t careful the next generation will consist entirely of wimps. They will go off on adventure holidays abroad, but they will not walk down the street or get on the Tube alone for fear of attackers. The net result will be not only a lack of life skills, but overwhelming fear: of predators, of accidents, of life itself. … And we will have created a whole generation of unhappy people. We need to be sensible, not risk-averse; we need to look out to see where we can help others. And, sometimes, we may even need to touch them.” » article
CG in the news Rescue Recess
Letter to the Editor, New York Times, December 21, 2007
Common Good President Janet Corcoran responds to an article in the New York Times on the growing trend to ban recess, "School Recess Gets Gentler, and the Adults Are Dismayed."
Will the Net Prevent the Collapse of the Common Good?
Digital Age, December 2007
Digital Age asks Philip K. Howard how the Internet has helped spread Common Good's message. Howard highlights the work Common Good is doing in health care, education, and civil justice.
Man Sues McDonald's for $10 Million
Interview with ABC Radio, August 12, 2007
ABC asked Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard to comment on another frivolous lawsuit, in which a man is suing McDonald's for $10 million.
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