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Let’s get this straight: Mayor Bill Jenks is not trying to ban the distribution of candy to children at the Christmas Parade, the St. Pat’s Parade or any other parade that traverses Rolla streets.
What he is trying to do is this: Stop the practice of throwing candy from vehicles to children lining the parade route. The mayor is concerned a child will run into the path of a truck or car or tractor or motorcycle to pick up a piece of candy. He is not trying to, as one person who posted on the newspaper’s Facebook site put it, “SUCK THE FUN OUT OF LIFE.”
Mayor Jenks is not opposed to throwing candy or handing candy to children. He simply wants the candy to be thrown or handed to children by people walking beside the floats and vehicles. He figures that practice will keep candy off the pavement, so children won’t dart from the sidewalks into the path of a moving vehicle, some of which have huge tires. Even a vehicle with medium or small tires can do some damage — or worse — to a child.
The mayor is not The Grinch. He has a big heart, not one two or three sizes too small, and he cares about your children, and wants to protect them.
Mayor Jenks has in his corner Councilman Stanley Spadoni, former police chief, who also cares about your children. At the last council meeting, former Chief Spadoni told of times that he worked to control the crowds at the parades and saw many near-misses.
Do you agree with Mayor Jenks and Councilman Spadoni that the city government should stop the practice of candy-throwing for the purpose of protecting children?
Who could be against regulating candy-throwing for that reason? As we hear so often in Rolla: If it saves the life of just one child, it would be worth it.
Well, I for one am against regulating candy-throwing for that reason. I do not agree with Mayor Jenks or Councilman Spadoni. I believe that you, not the city government, should be responsible for your child’s behavior. Keep your little darlin’ under control; protect him yourself. If your kid runs out in front of a big truck or a farm tractor pulling a church float and gets run over, I don’t care. That’s your business, not mine and not the city government’s.
Let’s get this straight: Mayor Bill Jenks is not trying to ban the distribution of candy to children at the Christmas Parade, the St. Pat’s Parade or any other parade that traverses Rolla streets.
What he is trying to do is this: Stop the practice of throwing candy from vehicles to children lining the parade route. The mayor is concerned a child will run into the path of a truck or car or tractor or motorcycle to pick up a piece of candy. He is not trying to, as one person who posted on the newspaper’s Facebook site put it, “SUCK THE FUN OUT OF LIFE.”
Mayor Jenks is not opposed to throwing candy or handing candy to children. He simply wants the candy to be thrown or handed to children by people walking beside the floats and vehicles. He figures that practice will keep candy off the pavement, so children won’t dart from the sidewalks into the path of a moving vehicle, some of which have huge tires. Even a vehicle with medium or small tires can do some damage — or worse — to a child.
The mayor is not The Grinch. He has a big heart, not one two or three sizes too small, and he cares about your children, and wants to protect them.
Mayor Jenks has in his corner Councilman Stanley Spadoni, former police chief, who also cares about your children. At the last council meeting, former Chief Spadoni told of times that he worked to control the crowds at the parades and saw many near-misses.
Do you agree with Mayor Jenks and Councilman Spadoni that the city government should stop the practice of candy-throwing for the purpose of protecting children?
Who could be against regulating candy-throwing for that reason? As we hear so often in Rolla: If it saves the life of just one child, it would be worth it.
Well, I for one am against regulating candy-throwing for that reason. I do not agree with Mayor Jenks or Councilman Spadoni. I believe that you, not the city government, should be responsible for your child’s behavior. Keep your little darlin’ under control; protect him yourself. If your kid runs out in front of a big truck or a farm tractor pulling a church float and gets run over, I don’t care. That’s your business, not mine and not the city government’s.
But, hold on a minute. There is a problem, and it is this: As soon as one of your little runny-nosed rugrats runs out and gets hurt, or worse, you’re going to weep and wail that the city was negligent. And all these folks who today are complaining that the city government is overstepping its bounds by trying to regulate candy-throwing and suck the fun out of life will join the hue and cry, wondering in letters to the editor why the city wasn’t pro-active, why the city had to wait for a tragedy before it took action.
Then you’ll sue the city council for not regulating candy-throwing, you’ll sue the police for not keeping your kid out of the street, you’ll sue the church or civic club from whose float the candy was thrown, you’ll sue Santa Claus for enticing children to the parade.
So, no, I do not agree with Mayor Jenks and Councilman Spadoni that the practice of candy-throwing should stop for the purpose of protecting our children, because I don’t care about your children. I think the practice of candy-throwing should stop for the purpose of protecting the taxpayers (and churches and civic clubs and Santa Claus) from a lawsuit if your child is hurt (or worse).
I hope the council at its next meeting will enact the ordinance regulating candy-throwing at parades. Moreover, I hope the ordinance will be rewritten with the requirement that barricades be put in place along the parade route. That ought to protect the children and the taxpayers.
Maybe I am The Grinch.--RDH
