Why Our Society Needs to Protect Children
So, true story from my childhood. When I was quite young, I’m guessing 5 or 6, a classmate pointed at a pinecone and said something like, “My uncle told me those pinecones are poisonous and if you eat them, you’ll die!” I knew about as much about pinecones then as I do now, which is essentially nothing, but that sounded like a lot of crap to me. So, I told him it wasn’t true. He insisted it was and dared me to eat it and prove him wrong. At that point, I did the natural thing for a young boy who has been challenged and I ATE PART OF A PINECONE (PS: Even if you live to be a hundred and read every day, you’re unlikely to see that sentence repeated anywhere).
The kid who dared me didn’t actually want me to eat it because he thought I’d die. I figured I probably wouldn’t die either based on absolutely nothing and chomped away. Happily, nothing happened. I didn’t get sick; I didn’t die and I just went on with my day.
Yet and still, does that sound like good decision-making to you? No, of cou…
