Laws Vs. Common Sense

Lots of things are so obviously wrong that it should not be necessary to pass a law against them. Furthermore, laws are not a substitute for common sense.

And some of the existing laws on the books likely contradict one another, so it would be impossible to obey them all. In fact, if a resident of the United States seeks to read all the federal, state, county, and city laws of the place where he or she resides, even if one reads for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for one's entire lifetime, one wouldn't finish in a normal lifespan.

Therefore, none of us have even read all the laws. If we haven't read all the laws and don't know them, how can we obey them? The key to maintaining a civilized society is not in passing laws and obeying them, it is in learning common sense and applying it.

Two Examples

As one example, no law exists against eating 100 chocolate chip cookies at one time, but few people would try to do it, due to the known harmful effects from the calories, saturated fat, sugar, etc. It's common sense. And, I confess that although I've never eaten 100 chocolate chip cookies at once, I have eaten far too many at one time before. I learned from my mistake (at least I hope so).

Quite frankly, it would probably be better if no one ever ate a chocolate chip cookie. Eat fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and grains, beans, nuts, legumes, etc., instead. Of course I can rationalize that chocolate chip cookies do contain flour, a grain.

Furthermore, eating a few of those cookies is a minor mistake (sin if you prefer). I may be better off if I never eat another chocolate chip cookie. But if I do (and I almost certainly will), I hope no one ever seeks to put me in jail or fine me for eating one (or several).

As a second example, no law exists in the United States now to prohibit abortions in the early stage of a pregnancy. But, I think even the most strongly pro-choice woman in the country would prefer to avoid the pain, expense, and health risks of an abortion if reasonably possible. It's common sense.

Personally, I am basically pro-life, but even pro-choice persons prefer preventing an unwanted pregnancy (by practicing sexual abstinence and/or using birth control) to having an abortion. Let's seek to prevent those unwanted pregnancies, rather than just preventing the abortions that are a symptom of underlying problems such as unwanted pregnancies and/or selfish sexual lust. I don't want to put persons in jail or fine them for an unintended pregnancy or for having an abortion. But common sense says to avoid undesired pregnancies and abortions whenever reasonably possible.

Laws and Common Sense

Below is a photo taken in June 2017 of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC. The United States Supreme Court is the highest court in the country. I hope its nine justices use common sense in determining how to decide the cases that come before them. Perhaps more important is how we individuals use common sense in our daily lives in numerous actions that never get to the Supreme Court.

Laws help us do correctly. Fortunately, we have laws against speeding, driving drunk, stealing, committing murder, bearing false testimony, etc. I'm glad. But enforcing all those laws isn't easy. It is far better if persons learn from common sense that society functions better when we avoid disobeying these laws, and we voluntarily obey such laws. Also, we can all work together to teach (or remind) others who do wrong (in a loving way) the right course of action to take, rather than depending on a few law enforcement officials to do so.

None of us perfectly develop our common sense, and thus we never have perfect obedience to what I call "God's law," doing the correct thing. But the closer we come to doing so, the better off we and society will be. We may have a lot of freedom, but we need to use our common sense to exercise our freedom wisely.

NOTE: This article was last modified on July 28th, 2021.

New York World Trade Center: A Personal Perspective

I abhor the horrible loss of innocent lives on September 11, 2001 when the New York World Trade Center was destroyed in a terrorist attack. But, at least in a small way, I partially understand why some persons hated the huge structure, even if I can't understand why they destroyed it. Please read on.

The New York World Trade Center was the largest office building in the world at the time it was destroyed. I visited New York City a few years before the World Trade Center's demise. Though I never went up to the top, I did walk through part of what I guess was the first floor of at least one of the twin towers.

The building itself seemed to possibly be constructed and used for the wrong reasons in the wrong way. Though I enjoyed my visit to New York City very much, the least favorite part of the visit was possibly the time I spent in that World Trade Center.

On the day that I was in the building, at the time I was there, a huge crowd of people (including me) was trying to go through the building on to our destinations beyond it after getting off the subway, while another crowd of people was waiting at the elevators to go up in the building. A bottleneck in the World Trade Center had us waiting for what seemed like several minutes in a crowd of people that barely moved for minutes.

The way the building was designed, there was only a relatively small area for persons to wait for the elevators, or for persons to walk through the first floor to other places. I think the architects, engineers, or whoever designed it would have done better to have put in a larger open plaza so that persons didn't crowd up waiting for the elevators or trying to walk through the first floor to other destinations.

Listening to and Talking With People in a Crowd at the World Trade Center

One person who was waiting in the crowd with me that day said that another person had told her that some individuals had considered renovating the building to make pedestrian traffic flow more efficiently, but that apparently the way the building was designed, the support beams, etc. didn't allow alterations that would make a large open area on the first floor to make it easier for travelers to walk quickly through to other destinations and/or to have a large area to wait for an elevator.

One person waiting in the crowd said that even if the building wasn't destroyed by terrorism, someday it would be torn down due to its poor design. The huge traffic jams on the first floor and the design that apparently made modifying it extremely difficult and expensive seemed to rule out other alternatives. Indeed, extensive renovations often are more expensive than tearing a building down and building a new one.

By the way, some of those waiting seemed very nervous. One person stated that she hated walking through it, not just because it took so long due to the crowds of people crammed together, but also because there were rumors that it was going to be attacked again. (The building had already been bombed once, on February 26, 1993). I don't know where the rumors came from, and she apparently didn't either. But obviously hatred continued.

As we waited for the crowd to move, those of us waiting had plenty of time to talk. I did more listening than talking. But, I asked one woman who said she had heard that some people were going to try to destroy it again, why persons wanted to destroy it. She said look around. I did. And I saw businesses that reminded me of the story in the New Testament about the money changers and salespersons that Jesus drove out of the temple.  If I remember correctly, I saw businesses selling lottery tickets, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, junk food, etc. There may have been businesses selling more useful, quality products, but my eyes were focused on the ones selling harmful products, and those products did seem to dominate.

Concluding Thoughts

Obviously, since the New York World Trade Center was the largest office building in the world, it housed a lot of offices of various types. At the time it was built, it was the tallest building in the world. And its "twin towers were the first supertall buildings designed without any masonry," according to a piece on Skyscraper.org. Persons of various nationalities, cultures, religions, etc., worked in the towers and visited them. The two 110-story towers were 1,368 and 1,362 feet high according to various websites. At least one child care center was even in the building, according to news reports. But in the spot where I was on the first floor, retail businesses selling harmful products seemed to dominate.

Though I hate the tragic loss of lives, in my humble opinion, New York City is better off without its World Trade Center. In fact, New York City may have been a better city long ago when the large lighthouse, Liberty Enlightening the World (better known as the Statue of Liberty), was the tallest structure in the city.

Probably the most enjoyable part of my visit to New York City was seeing that statue as I rode out toward Liberty Island and Ellis Island on a ferry boat. I could visualize in my mind immigrants from around the world sailing into the harbor, seeing that lighthouse lighting the way to a new life.

France may have donated that lighthouse to the United States at the right time for the right reason. In contrast, I think the New York World Trade Center may have been built the wrong way, by the wrong people, for the wrong reason, at the wrong time. I may be wrong, but I think the city is better off without it.

However, please don't misunderstand me. I am basically a pacifist. And I certainly don't condone or understand the madness that led extremists to crash jets into the towers as suicide bombers. But I do believe that when we do bad things, including building a huge building whose most visible elements include an overcrowded lobby with pedestrian traffic jams and money-hungry vendors selling harmful products, bad things happen.

I also believe that when we do good things, we make good things happen. Let's seek to love even our enemies as Jesus taught. By doing so, I think we can turn our enemies (if we have any) into our friends.