They seem like three disparate incidents:
*The individuals who were attacked by a tiger in the San Francisco Zoo.
*The Riverview residents who were chased from their homes by a toxic cloud.
*The Florida politician who is determined to deal legislatively with those who let their pants hang too low in our public schools.
Then you look closer.
Sure, the zoo’s wall, it turns out, was lower than recommended. But a contributing factor was the razzing or taunting that had occurred. The three young men involved, one of whom was killed, all had marijuana in their systems and one had a blood alcohol level twice that of the D.U.I. threshold.
As for the ammonia leak, residents from more than 300 homes had to evacuate as a result of a local vandal drilling into the above-ground portion of pipeline. Stronger security measures were subsequently suggested by the Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center, and Tampa Pipeline Corp. says most of the suggestions have already been implemented. The county also lauded emergency agencies for their quick response.
And state Democratic Senator Gary Siplin of Orlando has finally succeeded in pushing a bill to outlaw “sagging” drawers — sometimes called “jailing” — in school. It should reach the Senate floor in March. Siplin thinks it’s not hitting below the legislative belt to mandate that students pull up their pants in such a public venue. No butts about it.
The common thread here is behavior, whether around predatory animals at a zoo, around an exposed stretch of chemical pipeline or around the hips of Florida students.
A concomitant point is that authority invariably plays catch-up in such instances. And that’s because you can’t, ultimately, fix stupid.