Skip to main content

Two-sided Questions

I once knew a man who answered every question with “It all depends.” I never tried it, but I believe if you had asked him his name, he would have said “It all depends.” One time I actually did ask him, “John, (his name was John) can you ever answer a question without saying, ‘It all depends?’” He said, “Well, yes and no.” I never tried it again.

The reason I brought this up is because the older I get, the more trouble I have deciding between two opposing arguments. I can easily decide between steak or seafood for dinner, or between red and white wine. But it seems I can see both sides of most discussions, and I have a really hard time coming down on either side. I could flip a coin, but I know I would be dissatisfied with the outcome no matter which side won the toss.

For example, I live near Lancaster, Pa., a city with a population of 50,000+. Lancaster has been in the national news lately because a story in the LA Times called it the most watched little city in America. The city is in the process of installing some 160 video cameras in and around the downtown area.

Until the story came out, no one thought much about it; but now there is a big brouhaha going on. One side of the argument is that 1.) the cameras are in the public street where you have no expectation of privacy, 2.) if you have nothing to hide you will not be affected, and 3.) it will make everyone safer except for the felons.

The other side argues that 1.) the cameras see whoever comes in or out of my front door, 2.) they can see who I am and sell tapes to stalkers, divorce lawyers or anyone else, 3.) who knows what mischief the people watching the cameras might dream up, and 4.) they are an invasion of my privacy no matter what.

So far the cameras of caught several accidents and crimes on tape. Although face recognition software is not part of the system, they have helped police capture and convict several felons.

Benjamin Franklin said that people who give up freedom for safety deserve neither, but of course old Ben could never imagine the things that go on in the street today.

I kind of buy into the safety argument, but on the other hand, the idea that someone a mile away watches my every move is kind of creepy. I keep asking myself, “Self, what would Ben do?” Self answers, "It all depends."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

There Are Only Seven Jokes - Introduction

      The statement “There are only seven jokes – all the rest are variations,” has been around for a long time, but no one ever seems to know what the original seven are. I think I have found the solution to the mystery.       The answer is to be found in an article published in the New York Times on May 2, 1909. Entitled “New Jokes? There Are No New Jokes, There Is Only One Joke,” it goes on to say that all jokes are a distortion, and lists seven categories of distortion. Supposedly every joke will fit into one of the categories. I believe that repetition changed the seven categories into the seven jokes.       Each of my next seven blogs will be devoted to exploring one of the categories. In addition, I shall attempt to give an example or two of jokes which I think fit the category.       You must realize that this article appeared over one hundred years ago, so most of the jokes appearing therein are so out-of-date that modern readers wouldn’t even understand them. For example,

By Today’s Standards Many of my Teachers Would be in Jail

I started school in a two-room building: grades 1 to 4 in one room; grades 5 to 8 in the other. One teacher in each room taught all four grades. I don’t remember first grade very well – the teacher left at the end of the year. I am pretty sure it was not my fault. Now keep in mind that reading the Bible every morning was the standard for all grades at that time. But my teacher in grades two to four went a little above and beyond the normal practice. As a member of a “plain” sect, she considered it her duty to lead the little heathens to Christianity. She offered a free Bible to all students who managed to memorize 20 verses. I memorized my verses – “Jesus saves” was my favorite because it was the shortest – and got my Bible with my twenty underlined in red. That would be illegal today (not the underlining), and rightly so. Teachers may not teach religion, although contrary to what many folks seem to think, students may bring their Bibles to school, read them, and pray their
The National Anthem I have a somewhat minor pet peeve. I say minor because in the grand scheme of things neither I nor society will do anything substantive about it, so my best bet is probably to suck it up and move on. Perhaps after writing about it I can lay it to rest. It came up recently while I was working out at our Wellness Center. A program on television was playing America The Beautiful , and I remarked to a lady I have known for 40 years that I thought that should be the National Anthem instead of The Star Spangled Banner. She replied, rather huffily, I thought, “Some people think God Bless America should be the national anthem.” At that point I decided, wisely, I think, to back off before an argument sprang up. Now I realize that The Star Spangled Banner is a very nice, patriotic song, but an anthem it is not. According to Wikipedia, “ An anthem is a  musical composition  of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the  nationa