Common Sense
March 18, 2006, 8:02 am
Posted by Robert P. Imbelli
I’ve read countless pages of often turgid philosophical prose over the years, but the words that have had the most abiding impact come from, of all people, Descartes. The advocate of “clear and distinct ideas” once said: “Common sense is what is most widespread and least used.”
In the midst of the turmoil over same-sex adoptions, a welcome display of common sense appears in a column in today’s Boston Globe. Charles Glenn writes: “The public policy issue is not whether Catholic Charities is correct about the harm of same-sex parenting; it is whether an agency with by all acccounts a highly succcessful record of adoption placement is to be prevented by over-regulation from exercising its best judgment about which families are suitable.”
Glenn’s article was interesting and I will continue to ponder it, however, the issue of the role of “common sense” is another matter.
In this province (Ontario) the previous government (Conservative) ran on a policy platform called “The Common Sense Revolution” (the blue book) and won. By the time the people of the province turfed them out of power, ( 2 terms or 8 yrs later) the general conclusion was common sense made no sense at all.
I find it interesting that “highly succcessful record of adoption placement ” includes placing hard-to-place children with lesbian and gay adopting parents.
But in the interplay of religion as politics and politics as religion, that really doesn’t mean much, does it?
I also challenge anyone to show verificable statistics that show that children who have been adopted by gays and lesbians are in any was harmed. We all know, of course, that heterosexual parents and adoptive parents are so very successful at child-raising. Except for those who have raised (and, in the main, loved) lesbian and gay children, of course …. they really must have screwed up somewhere along the line.
Now talk to me about “common sense.”