Daily Archives: 9 May 2014

Responsibility

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What is this thing, responsibility?

A Detroit teacher [at Pershing High School] has been fired after a cell phone video surfaced of her breaking up a fight between two students with a broom.

Keith Johnson, President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, understands what this thing, this idea of responsibility, is? He said that

the teacher was wrong for using a broom, although he understands her motive. “Unfortunately, the method that she used, in terms of swatting one with a broom, is a violation of the corporal punishment provision under the Michigan school code. But she’s caught in a quandary because under that same code she’s expected to do what is necessary to diffuse a situation.”

It’s the rules’ responsibility, not the person. Nope, the union rep doesn’t get it.

Then there’s Kiren Lowery, one of the pupils in the fight. He said that

he does not feel responsible for her termination. He thinks she should have waited for security to come.

Because it’s always someone else’s problem. No understanding here, either.

Does any school teach responsibility anymore?

The People’s Republic of China Escalates

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…and the Obama administration bleats. The escalation comes in the context of a PRC attempt to install a large oil rig near the Paracel Islands in waters claimed by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of China (note: not the PRC; their claim is nothing other than an illegitimate sea grab).

…about 80 Chinese vessels had moved into an area…. [Vietnamese officials] said Chinese vessels repeatedly rammed into and fired water cannons at Vietnamese vessels, injuring at least six Vietnamese sailors.

Instead of doing anything concrete, Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary (of State), Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, while claiming to understand the importance of Vietnam to US security interests in the region, offered this, instead:

Competing sovereignty claims in disputed areas, including the Paracels, must be dealt with peacefully, must be dealt with diplomatically, and must be dealt with in accordance to international laws.

He added that the US has no position on the relative merits of any claims in the region.

Of course not.

Ya ta ta, ya ta ta, ya ta ta. Moral relativism. Ya ta ta, ya ta ta, ya ta ta.