It’s a dangerous world we live in, with disasters both natural and unnatural occurring all the time.  At the heart of many in the latter category are the absence of logic, common sense or decency.   Several news items today illustrate the point, and we’ve hit the trifecta – - no logic, no common sense, no decency.

First up, a story from New Hampshire.  Seems a fellow up there had been a little mischievous in his past, and had been ordered by a court to stay away from a certain lady to whom he had given an uninvited leg up.  He was arrested recently for having further contact with her, and is now being held on $5000 cash bail in a local jail in Portsmouth.

Sounds pretty standard so far, don’t you think?  Another police blotter story, you say?  Not so much.  You see,  the contact with the lady was as a result of her visiting his home and knocking on his door.  He immediately called the police to have her removed, and when the police arrived, they arrested him instead for violating the stay away order.  At the bail hearing, the judge told him it was his responsibility to avoid contact with the lady, not hers.

One could argue the results were correct – - a bad man was back behind bars.  However, we’re a little hard-pressed to suggest the logic and common sense behind the reason is as solid as those bars.  Bad logic + good result = balance, it seems.

The second story is from Pennsylvania.  A local VFW hall uses an answering machine to cover calls when the hall is not in use.  The recorded greeting on the answering machine includes the following:  “We are an English-speaking, American establishment. If you do not speak English or believe in America, please hang up.”

The commander of the Post said: “”We are living in America, we should be able to speak English.”  While some in the community believe the message to be racist and unconstitutional, the veterans said they were sticking to their guns.

It isn’t so much a question of logic with this story.  Rather, it’s one of common sense.  See, it’s non-English speaking callers to whom the message is directed, callers who would not understand a message in English to begin with, so the people targeted by that message aren’t going to get it.  Get it?

The third story, filled with sadness and tragedy, has elements of both illogic and common nonsense, however true the story may be.  A Philadelphia couple allowed their daughter, a 14 year old with cerebral palsy, to die two years ago from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores.  They have been charged with murder as a consequence.

Those parents, though, have sued the city of Philadelphia for damages alleging that dangerous and reckless actions by several municipal employees and contract workers contributed to the girl’s death.  There’s cheeky, and then there is an utter and pathological refusal to accept the consequences of one’s own actions. It’s always someone else’s fault.  Her name was Danieal Kelly, and let’s hope she is now resting comfortably in a peace and love she did not get from her parents.

There’s no logic, no common sense, no decency in this one.  Collectively, these stories make us laugh and make us cry, and in that sense give us the story of life.  But there’s no logic, common sense or decency to that, either.

This is what some of us have become, and it makes the rest of us have to work harder to become something more.