Do you ever wonder if public officials are escaped mental patients?
At a school board meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, board Chairman Joe White was lobbying for an environmental policy initiative. He then pointed to a 5-year-old in the crowd and said, "if adults don't protect her air and water 'then it matters not one iota; she will die at a young age.'" The girl, Kelly Vazquez, had, "asked board members to preserve the French immersion program at Oaklawn Elementary." (This is, as far as I can tell, a separate issue. At least I hope it is, since environmental awareness really shouldn't be limited to those who speak French.)
According to the Charlotte Observer, the family was "traumatized"; in fact, the mother was quoted as saying, "I didn't mind…It's something true. We need to think about the future of the kids."
Whatever you think of the worthiness of the proposal (which some at the meeting opposed because, according to the Observer, they feared it would add staff and costs and was unnecessary), what exactly is the purpose of picking a little girl out of the crowd and informing everyone that she is going to die young if some dopey proposal doesn't get passed? If this had happened in Manhattan – where I've seen people almost come to blows at a co-op board meeting discussing the building pet policy – those parents would have blown a gasket. Not that that's good either, but "your child will die if this doesn't go through" seems a tad melodramatic, don’t you think?
image (which is completely unrelated): flickr
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