If you’re heading to the polls today take a moment to remember exactly what your vote will change, nothing. People keep talking about the importance of this election because of guns rights, gay rights, the Supreme Court and so on and so fourth. But nobody seems to be addressing the epidemic of ridiculous laws and policies. For example, no candidate, as far as I know, has come out against zero tolerance policies in public schools, which are fucking kids’ lives up:
Nine elementary school kids in South Carolina have been suspended for violating a school drug policy because they were caught with so-called “happy crack,” a mixture of Kool-Aid and sugar that is not actually illicit but, simply by resembling an illicit substance, violates school policy.
WYFF4 reports that their punishment was reduced from expulsion to suspension, though privacy laws prevent the school from disclosing whether students, who are around age 10, were distributing or simply eating the powder.
While stories like this may seem minor they are important illustrations of the mountain of little laws and policies that punish innocent people every day. In this case the kids’ only crime was possessing something that kind of looks like an illicit substance just as kids before them have been punished for eating a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun shape. These zero tolerance policies are punishing kids who have literally done nothing wrong yet no candidates that I’m aware of have brought up the issue as part of their campaigning.
Go ahead and vote. Vote really hard. But realize that your vote won’t actually change anything. You’ll still be buried under a mountain of stupid laws and policies tomorrow regardless of who takes the presidency, Congress, or your local city council.
School stories join cop stories in that each one is so ridiculous I think it can’t possibly be topped by anything more absurd; then, all too soon, it is.