Dear Plankton,

You recently received some publication or another at work that told you that �Safety is not a priority; it�s a value.� The publication vetted the need for constant vigilance to ensure safety. It pointed out that only through thinking of safety first and foremost can the world be made to be a better place, a place in which more of us survive. You pooh-poohed it and said that while safety was important it was not nearly as important as that publication suggested. You were wrong. Safety is everything.

If your children are not safe, they will not survive and give you grandchildren. (Actually, it�s possible that they will survive and not give you grandchildren but that�s a discussion for another day.) That passing on of genetic material is your immortality. That immortality depends on survival. Dead or maimed children are unlikely to reproduce. (A few years ago, I would have said �will not reproduce.� Amazing how times change, isn�t it?)

Besides, your happiness depends upon their survival. You love them dearly and would grieve deeply if they were gone. How can you let Day-Hay walk to school with her friend as she does? She could get hit by a car. She could be accosted. Sure, it�s a very small chance she�d be accosted but you can read the news. It happens every day to someone somewhere. Do you think you�re immune? I know that bus accidents happen and car accidents too but Mr. Philately is a very safe driver. (I�m not talking about you as a driver because I know that you do not feel that confident in your driving.) He cares more than any bus driver or anyone who would see her walking by. She can get her exercise elsewhere. Have him drive her.

And stop squawking about the metal detectors at the high school. Sure, they are not perfect but they are placed there with the best of motives. They deter kids from coming in with guns in the middle of the day. Even if they could do it after school, worrying about the middle of the day is a start. Instead of complaining about how silly they are, you should be in there fighting to expand their use instead of noting how much safer kids are in school than out on the streets. Don�t kids have a right to be safe? If kids don�t feel safe not as much learning takes place. Never mind that they may have to get up at an even more obscene hour of the morning just to get through the lines. Never mind that seriously sleep-deprived teens do not do much learning either.

You simply must stop letting that child with epilepsy ride a bicycle. You and I both know that it�s probably not the epilepsy that dictates that she stop. She has never lost consciousness during the day and it�s been years and years since she lost consciousness to a seizure at night. Still, a consciousness-losing seizure could happen and she could lose control of her bicycle. I�ll grant you that her lack of coordination is a bigger safety issue. I�ll even grant that bicycling is good exercise and it helps improve her balance. But you were there after her last bike accident. You saw the broken wrist, the road burn, and the damaged teeth. You saw the destroyed helmet. You know how much worse it could have been.

Safety isn�t everything. It�s the only thing. Don�t say you weren�t warned.

Sincerely,
Devil�s Advocate

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