Walled Lake hazing incident way overblown

It seems a football player at Walled Lake Western was recently "hazed" by his teammates at the home of a coach. Reports say the player was taped to a pole with his mouth taped shut and beaten with pillows. Other players have been suspended, coaches fired, the cops are involved, prosecutors are likely on-deck, and some lawyer is probably licking his/her chops. People are outraged.

So am I, but for different reasons.

A football player was ganged-up on and hit with pillows? In junior high school, I can remember some of the girls gossiping about similar things. They were called "pajama parties". I don't seem to recall anybody getting in trouble over that, much less it becoming a media spectacle.

They can make all the rules they want, but there will always be bullies. For every group of Potsies there will be a Fonzie. I suspect it's always been that way, and always will be. Trying to change that through legislation has about the same chance of succeeding as banning babies from being born redheads. At that, from my experience, bullies seldom went on to become successful as adults. Life has a way of evening things out like that.

Used to be people would drop their pants and show their butts. It was called "mooning", and everybody laughed. Now the same thing is called indecent exposure, and it's a felony that could land one in prison. If a couple teenagers wanted to swap "hickeys" on their necks, they might have been teased at school. These days they'd probably be labeled sexual deviates. Months of counseling would likely be mandated and no more contact between the two would be allowed. Is this what we've turned into?

Kids need to be allowed to be just that -- kids. They'll fall down, get bumps and bruises, chip a tooth, maybe break a bone and, yes, they'll mess up once in a while. It goes with the territory. Kids used to ring doorbells and soap windows. Those were considered pranks. Nowadays, it might be harassment/stalking and malicious destruction of property. Hello rap sheet. Gimme me a break. Better yet, give THEM a break. Growing up is tough enough. What they DON'T need is to be micro-managed by an army of strangers that have more rules and regs than the IRS tax code. They'll get enough of that when they eventually venture out into the real world. Let them enjoy their childhood, with a healthy dose of tough (parental) love when required, and it just might work out.

Today's bullying was yesterday's hazing and yesteryear's rite of passage. Sometimes the old ways are better, not to mention more effective. Don't believe that and times change, you say? Fine. Surely our founding fathers couldn't have envisioned what modern-day American society has become. Want to tear up the Constitution and start over?

So here we are. Calling all counselors, therapists, cops, prosecutors, social service workers, and lawyers. Suspend the players, fire the coaches, interrogate the parents, sue everybody you can think of, and have the whole Walled Lake school system probed from top to bottom. News at 11. And just exactly what will have been accomplished? Money might change hands, positions will be re-staffed, resumes and reputations forever tarnished, and family relations strained. Other than that -- not much.

Just a thought, but perhaps somebody somewhere can stop this particular tsunami of political correctness running rampant if they really want to.

Two words.

Lighten up.