Hits and Misses
MISS: If you’ve watched television news over the last week or so, you’ve undoubtedly seen images of angry protests in France – rocks being hurled, police charging, fires being set and tear gas filling the air. Are the French protesting an unjust war? Racism? Flagrant police brutality? No, they are furious because the eligible retirement age in France has been raised from 62 to 64. French president Emmanuel Macron has insisted that the change needs to be made to protect the solvency of the public pension system, particularly in light of falling birth rates. It should be noted that, even at 64, the French can still retire before workers in Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia and Spain. That Macron worked around the French legislature to make the change is cause for concern. And it has been said that the French love a good protest. But the protesters will have a hard time finding much sympathy from workers elsewhere in the world who will have to toil on their 65th birthdays or beyond.
HIT: A child going into cardiac arrest is not something most of us would like to think about, and thankfully it is a relatively rare occurrence. But an estimated 1 in 300 students has an undetected heart problem, so it would make sense for schools to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) on hand. Pennsylvania does not require that AEDs be in schools, but a bill introduced by state Sen. Katie Muth, a suburban Philadelphia Democrat, would change that. If approved in its current form, the bill would require that school buildings have an AED in a central location. A separate measure would require coaches and supervisors of after-school activities be certified in CPR and the use of an AED. Muth characterized it as “a public safety issue.” Many of our neighbors, including West Virginia, Maryland and New York, have AED requirements for their schools, and Pennsylvania should join them.
MISS: “The Addams Family” has become a favorite musical to present in high schools, and not without good reason – it’s goofy, harmless fun that will appeal to parents and grandparents who remember the “Addams Family” movies and TV series from decades ago. Trinity High School outside Washington presented it this month without incident. But the school board for the Northern Lebanon School District in the central part of Pennsylvania voted against allowing “The Addams Family” to be presented in the 2023-24 school year. The reasons? They believed the musical has “dark themes” and it contains offensive content. Unfortunately, the Northern Lebanon district isn’t the only place where musicals have recently been challenged: A district in Bucks County recently nixed a production of “Rent,” apparently because it was “too controversial.” We can only wonder with dismay what acclaimed or innocuous material censors on both the left and right are going to find offensive next.