None Of Us Would Survive

Microscopic Scrutiny

To the editor:

“Safety, and hypocrisy.”

The Parents (the Gissens): Their hearts were in the right place when they put themselves out to provide a safe haven after the prom for high school seniors who wanted a late night under-the-stars get-together with their friends. The parents had a Plan.... but plans sometimes fall short, and  “no good deed goes unpunished.”

The Setting — Time and Place: The suburbs of New York City (2007). We don’t live in Mayberry, Russellville, Ark., or even Newtown 1974, where our spectacular — but, apparently, “unsafe” — July 4th fireworks display once drew throngs from miles around. Modern suburbanites can be impatient about late-night parties; and, also, about noise and flying baseballs emanating from kid’s bal lfields, for that matter.

The Newtown Police Department: They received a complaint, they enforced the law. They did their job.

The Newtown Prevention Council: From a medical and safety standpoint, who could possibly fault their efforts to curb underage drinking? The value of safety measures, however, needs to be weighed against their cost in personal liberty. And when an individual’s actions are viewed under the safety microscope, none of us should escape examination. After all, most of us don’t think twice about packing our loved ones into the eggshell-thin confines of the family car, and flying with impunity up the interstate at 5, 10, or even 15 mph above the legal speed limit.

Thirty Years Ago: The rutted-dirt of Hopewell Road was clogged with parked cars at 11 pm on a starry Saturday night in May. Crawling by as branches scratched the doors of your brand-new but already-rusting pickup truck, you could see a happy band of teenaged kids piling dead wood on a bonfire off among the trees. You smiled, but it crossed your mind as to whether they would all make it home OK.

Now it’s 2007, and we are all the wiser. Parent-hosts such as the Gissens are prudently collecting car keys, but apparently that is not enough to satisfy some critics. Let he who has never exceeded 25 mph in a school zone cast the first stone.

Josh Hull

Fern Lane, Newtown                                                          May 16, 2007