24 June 2018
Unexpected good news comes from Ohio’s legislature. The standards of decency, gentility, self-control, and self-respect are all advanced by a couple of bills that help to push back the last century’s tide of “progressive” infantilization.
Most portentous is Speaker Smith’s “Stand Your Ground” bill now headed for Kommissar Kasich’s promised veto. Irrespective of its outcome, the bill bolsters our natural human rights to dignity, integrity, and self-defense. The notion of the “public space” means that all are free to engage that space, and that therefore none are entitled to bar others’ peaceful use. We do not “own” the sidewalks in the same sense that we might “own” our homes or our persons, but we have nevertheless established a peaceful use easement to such shared spaces. The legislative effort to acknowledge our natural human rights to stand our ground in the face of trespass, whether at home or abroad, is much appreciated, even if I don’t share Mr Smith’s confidence of his bill’s “veto proof” status. Once again, I hope I’m wrong.
Less obvious, but also far reaching in its potential for good is the “Cursive Writing” act now making it’s way through the legislative labyrinth. Though scorned by many as arcane, old school, and irrelevant to our keypad sensibilities, penmanship promotes mental development. Mastery of script, the ability to write smoothly, trains the brain to think smoothly and to appreciate elegance and clarity. Like tennis, golf, or needlepoint, writing in script helps to integrate and focus the mind, and just generally makes us more interesting people. Mastery of our “smart phones” teaches us to think incrementally, it diffuses and distracts our minds, and may even make us measurably stupider.