...For Common Sense!
Do you ever just read the headlines from online mainstream news sites and want to scream? I do, and my main cry would be a loud and long one … for common sense.
My desire to scream increases exponentially when I actually read these news stories and see the lack of research and clarity of details. Often, the stories do not even match their headlines, much less demonstrate simple common sense.
What happened to our national (and personal) commodity of good ol’ common sense?
Have we somehow limited the manufacture of this much-needed merchandise, or is it no longer in production at all? If so, is common sense soon destined to be totally obsolete? I truly hope and pray that is not the case.
Because, in this upside-down world in which evil is touted as good, and wrong is suddenly viewed as right – we need plain and simple common sense now more than ever!
For example, yesterday, I was honestly shocked to read versions of this headline on multiple news sites: “United States Supreme Court Justice Compares Side Effects of Aspirin to Those of Trans Gender Medical Care for Children.”
Granted, a closer look (and actual listen) to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s comments during oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, reveals her lack of common sense was not quite that blatant. She fumbled through several sentences trying to assert that all drugs have side effects, even aspirin.
But common sense would surely tell any adult that the possible side effects from ingesting an over-the-counter, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that has been used in some form for over 3,500 years and has been on the market since the late 1890s is a long, long, long stretch from taking puberty-blocking drugs that were first used in the 1980s and hormone therapy that was only given to minors a decade later.
Yet, Sotomayor, one of our nation’s most esteemed thinkers, went on to state that drug choices should be up to the patient (three Tennessee minors, in this case) and the medical providers. As such, she asserted (somewhat jumbled and confusingly) that all minors (possibly millions, according to her) should not be banned from using the puberty-blocking and hormone therapy drugs in question.
As examples of the possibly millions of minor patients who might be adversely impacted by not getting these relatively new medicines, Justice Sotomayor, highlighted the possibility that a 9-year-old boy might legitimately need to stop some unwanted hair growth to prevent being laughed at and bullied, or a young girl might legitimately want to get rid of her breasts.
So, following this line of thought, ultimately, these examples of the millions of similarly dire needs for such puberty blockers and hormone therapy drugs would be unfairly banned by this Tennessee state law.
Wait! Stop and think about her statements. Ponder these words of cultural wisdom coming directly from the mouth of a United States Supreme Court Justice.
According to Justice Sotomayor’s reasoning, just in case a boy might get too much chest hair too early in life or a little girl might not like her budding breasts, a state cannot ban potentially harmful drugs that will forever impact and change the lives of American children.
In essence, to make sure no little boys are ever bullied over excessive chest hair, we need to make sure that sex-change drugs are readily available to all minors.
That is beyond a lack of common sense; That is absolute insanity.
And have no doubt, the next line in this insane train of cultural thought will be to ensure that the parents of these same minors cannot be notified of such drug usage – unless hairless little Billy and his new transgendered (breast-free) friend say so.
Doesn’t that thought make you want to scream … for some common sense?
Perhaps the only way to find our way back to sane, common-sense thinking is to get back to the only real source of wisdom: the Bible.
As Isaiah 54:13 puts it this way: “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children” (ESV).
In other words, no God equals no peace. But conversely, to know God is to know peace.
And amazingly, the Bible also tells us exactly how to best know God in Proverbs 2:3-5:
“Cry out for wisdom, and beg for understanding. Search for it like silver, and hunt for it like hidden treasure. Then you will understand respect for the Lord, and you will find that you know God” (NCV).
Best of all, the remainder of this biblical proverb assures us that our cries to God not only bring us His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, but those cries also provide us with the bonus gifts of God’s protection and justice.
Common sense would say that is definitely a win-win proposition.
So, instead of screaming over our topsy-turvy world of insanity, let’s cry out to God in corporate prayer for His true treasures. That’s the only common-sense solution for us – and our children.
