" The Death of Common Sense " -Article by Lori Borgman

http://www.loriborgman.com/The_Death_of_Common_Sense.html

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Hello, my fellow Bloggers /Hubbers:

There has been a tremendous response to both viewers and listeners of many BLOG Sites, TV Channels, etc.,
to, what I would call an amazing Article written by Ms. Lori Borgman, whose home site I have listed above.

Permit me to quote the ad on Lori Borgman as listed on her own site as mentioned above:

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ABOUT LORI:

Lori earned a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism where the motto was "succeed or die trying." It was a close call several times, but she made it. She completed two programs of study, photojournalism and news-editorial writing. She worked as a photojournalist at several papers, and also as a contract photographer for Getty Images.

When Lori and her husband started their family, she traded in her camera bag for a diaper bag and ventured into the world of mothering where women work with pre-verbal creatures that explode at semi-regular intervals. (So, really, it wasn't all that different from covering the explosion of Mt. St. Helen's)

When “the baby” started first grade, Lori turned to the computer keyboard and began writing. That “baby” just started teaching first grade and Lori is still writing.

Lori’s column is distributed by McClatchy Tribune News Service to newspapers throughout the United States and Canada. Her writing has been read aloud on The Dr. Laura Show, Live with Regis! and the Paul Harvey News and Comment. She is also a regular contributor to www.JewishWorldReview.com, www.crosswalk.com and the Saturday Evening Post.

Lori is the author of “I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids,” “Pass the Faith, Please,” ”All Stressed Up and No Place To Go” and her latest book, a short work of fiction titled, “Catching Christmas.” More information on the books can be found at the books link.

A frequent speaker at Town Hall lecture series, libraries, church groups, civic groups and women's groups, Lori counts two of her greatest privileges to include addressing a Spouses of Congress event at the Capitol and delivering the commencement address to college graduates at the Indiana Women's Prison.

Lori has picked up a few journalism awards along the way, but the honor she values more than any others is having a reader say, "I clipped your column and hung it on the 'fridge." For a columnist, it doesn't get much better than that.

e-mail: lori@loriborgman.com "

This this is my way of acknowledging my thanks to Lori and the fact that I will list hereunder her Article in full.

Those interested can contact Lori contact Lori at her e-mail listed above.

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I quote Lori again in a statement she has made on her Home Site:

" There seems to be a resurgence of interest in my piece, “The Death of Common Sense”. Here is the original version as it was printed Sunday, March 15, 1998."

Thus, before I quote below her now famous article I predict " The Death of Common Sense will stand the test of time and be as famous as other newspaper articles /publications of former years.


I now proudly bring to all my fellow Bloggers/Hubbers and to readers all over the world this wonderful Article as compiled by Ms. Lori Borgman:

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The Death of Common Sense
© Lori Borgman | Sunday, March 15, 1998
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Three yards of black fabric enshroud my computer terminal. I am mourning the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense. His obituary reads as follows: Common Sense, aka C.S., lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the millennium. No one really knows how old he was, his birth records were long ago entangled in miles and miles of bureaucratic red tape. Known affectionately to close friends as Horse Sense and Sound Thinking, he selflessly devoted himself to a life of service in homes, schools, hospitals and offices, helping folks get jobs done without a lot of fanfare, whooping and hollering.

Rules and regulations and petty, frivolous lawsuits held no power over C.S. A most reliable sage, he was credited with cultivating the ability to know when to come in out of the rain, the discovery that the early bird gets the worm and how to take the bitter with the sweet.

C.S. also developed sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adult is in charge, not the kid) and prudent dietary plans (offset eggs and bacon with a little fiber and orange juice).

A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, the Technological Revolution and the Smoking Crusades, C.S. survived sundry cultural and educational trends including disco, the men's movement, body piercing, whole language and new math. C.S.'s health began declining in the late 1960s when he became infected with the If-It-Feels-Good, Do-It virus.

In the following decades, his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal and state rules and regulations and an oppressive tax code. C.S. was sapped of strength and the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, criminals received better treatment than victims and judges stuck their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional baseball and golf.

His deterioration accelerated as schools implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of 6-year-old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing classmates, a teen suspended for taking a swig of Scope mouthwash after lunch, girls suspended for possessing Midol and an honor student expelled for having a table knife in her school lunch were more than his heart could endure.

As the end neared, doctors say C.S. drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding regulations on low-flow toilets and mandatory air bags. Finally, upon hearing about a government plan to ban inhalers from 14 million asthmatics due to a trace of a pollutant that may be harmful to the environment, C.S. breathed his last.

Services will be at Whispering Pines Cemetery. C.S. was preceded in death by his wife, Discretion; one daughter, Responsibility; and one son, Reason. He is survived by two step-brothers, Half-Wit and Dim-Wit.

Memorial Contributions may be sent to the Institute for Rational Thought. Farewell, Common Sense. May you rest in peace.

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Note: This piece was first published March 15, 1998 in the Indianapolis Star. It has since been published in newspapers and magazines around the world and is a favorite of radio talk show hosts. This month, a Yoga magazine in Spain, a high school in Idaho, a writer in Ireland and retired teacher in Australia (among a slew of others) have asked to reprint it.

The column is somehow more relevant today than when I wrote it 11 years ago. It is circulated widely on the Internet, often "edited' and "adapted" and sent to me several times a year. Imagine my surprise to see it attributed to some guy named Anonymous.

On the left is the original column in its entirety. If you'd like permission to reprint it, e-mail me at lori@loriborgman.com

I predict that this Article will stand the test of time and be equated with other newspaper articles of fame. One that particularly comes to mind is the world famous article: " Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus " that I also proudly list below and I extend due acknowledgement to the e-mail address/publisher that I located on Google Search:
www.newseum.org/yesvirginia

NOTE: DUE TO THE LENGTH OF THIS ARTICLE WE WILL PLACE : " YES, VIGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUSE " AS A SEPARATE ARTICLE THAT WILL PRECEDE THIS ONE PER THE RULES OF BLOGGING!
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I thank you all, my fellow Bloggers/ Hubbers and to other readers.
I hope you will be inspired as I was and am by these two outstanding articles that will stand the test of time.

Alex Fleming.
A concerned citizen of the United States and, by self proclamation, a Citizen of the World.


=============== END OF ' THE DEATH OF COMMON SENSE ' =================

HERE IS THE 2ND NEWSPAPER ARTICLE THAT HAS BEEN READ AND REREAD IN MANY LANGUAGES OVER THE YEARS AND ITS MESSAGE IS AS FRESH AND MEANINGFUL AS WHEN IT WAS FIRST WRITEN 110 YEARS AGO.

Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.
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Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
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"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
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VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong.

They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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