Dandylions

Sunday, May 4, 2008

It's spring right now. Everything is coming up and recreating the world again. What is particularly beautiful is the green grass and flowering trees and blue skies. After a winter of browns and grays - green, reds, yellows, blues are a welcome sight.

However, in the midst of the green grass that fills every yard, yellow dandylions pop up. In their flowering stage, they aren't necessarily ugly, but you know that they will eventually take over the yard if someone doesn't do something. Pull them, spray them, something.

Many people go to great lengths to kill the dandylions early in the season. Others let them go. Those that let them go, have problems...problems which ruin their yards, but also can cause lots of problems for the neighboring yards. The yellow flower eventually turns into a ball of white seeds that drift around into fertile soil and grow another weed. The new weed then turns into a ball of seeds which against blows apart, drifting into other soil only to grow another weed. With in a few weeks, the grass starts to die because the dandylion is taking over the nutrients from the soil and sun.

The same can be true of two things: foreign policy, and community standards.

Foreign policy - Some countries go to great lengths creating an atmosphere where despots, terrorists, or fascists can't thrive. Their lawn is green and lush and there's no fear of dandylions. They dug out areas where weeds grew. They planted grass in bare areas so weeds wouldn't start. They spray early in the season to kill seeds. However, others don't care or don't know how to get rid of the despots and so they thrive, creating more and more, until the lawn is dead, and the terrorists start blowing their seeds across the lawn to other people's yards where they can take root. And even though the former country went to great lengths to spray early in the season, these new seeds can still take root and grow into another patch of weeds. We should find out what kills terrorism, and either require that all countries apply a weed killer to get rid of them...or we will come in and apply.

Community Standards - the same metaphor applies to community standards. Some families go to great lengths to raise children in an environment where they will be healthyminded, and where they will choose to be contributing citizens to the world in which they live. These parents pull the weeds, and get rid of weeds that otherwise might spread. However, other parents don't do anything to keep their children from growing ugly vices or tear apart a civilized world. They leave choices to chance. Let their kids adopt every possible vice and don't do anything to curtail the growth of weeds in their kids.

When I complain about the garbage on TV or in theaters, or on the internet. I'm basically saying that I know that I have the responsibility to keep my own kids away from garbage. They have rating systems, passwords, etc. to help me with my job. And I've got good kids who aren't going to try to go around the system. But I want to keep other kids away from garbage as well...for if their parents don't weed their kids hearts, the seeds of destruction not only destroys their kids hearts, but has the potential of destroying the society we all share.