Opinion: News of the weird deserves headlines

Since this knotty riddle interests politicians of all stripes in search of votes, it will probably continue to hog the headlines for days to come. With this and other huge news stories in the spotlight, some intriguing happenings may have fallen through the cracks. If you missed them, read on.

A story from Doylestown, Pa., raises different legal questions. It seems the county supervisors have passed an ordinance setting the fine at $1,000 for flipping a cigarette butt on the ground.

Regardless of how you may feel about smokers, surely this must seem to be out of line. It’s especially obvious considering the maximum fine for all other littering in Doylestown is $300. One can throw unspeakable stuff on the ground and the judge is limited to a $300 fine, but a cigarette butt is $1,000?

I would think civil libertarians would be on this like a cat on a mouse. I don’t condone throwing cigarette butts on the ground, but smokers are a group and they are being legally discriminated against.

My knowledge of the legal system may be limited; however, I don’t think laws are supposed to single out specific groups for more severe punishment. Where are the class action lawsuits?

Another news story doesn’t involve legal issues, unless dumbness is illegal. For sure, a situation at Huntington Gorge, near Richmond, Vt., stands as a stark reminder that dumbness perhaps should be against the law.

In the past 40 years, 20 people have died from falls into the Huntington Gorge.

My math skills may be no better than my legal expertise; however, I calculate that every two years someone has fallen and died. Like me, you may be wondering why people kept on falling for 40 years. If so many have fallen, it must be fairly easily done. Why did they keep on doing it?

Apparently the new owner of the popular attraction asked a question 40 years in the making. The creative answer? The new owners put up a warning sign at the spot where people have previously fallen. That’s not all. A footbridge was constructed to provide a safer spot from which to view the cascade.

Would it be tacky of me to ask what took so long? If not after the first fatal fall, certainly after the second, I would have expected the sign and footbridge to appear.

While the Vermont story highlights some smart things done after 40 years of dumb things, someone at Eudora High School in Kansas did a smart thing that might deter some students from doing dumb things later in their lives.

The scene was the high school career fair. As to be expected, the obligatory professionals were on hand to inform the students about lawyers, physicians, bankers, teachers, convicts … Say what? Convicts?

This is no typo. Two convicts were on hand to lay on the line to students what they could expect from careers in crime. The speakers were inmates from Lansing (Kansas) Correctional Facility. As a long-ago high school teacher, I can say this was a valuable lesson for the students.

The speakers, both convicted methamphetamine dealers, told students that if they chose a similar career, they could expect to earn $28.40 per month from working in prison, live in a tiny cell and pay bribes to fellow prisoners for protection. To these young people, walking the straight and narrow must have sounded like a much better option.

To me, contemplating the values of this news is better than seeking the logic of a Spanish-language version of the American national anthem.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.[[In-content Ad]]