Swampscott Father to Son on Chemical Health Policy

Open Letter to my son regarding the SHS Chemical Health Policy

Dear Daniel, 2011, March 14

You asked me to sign the Chemical Health Contract because you don’t feel it changes anything in your life, and you want to participate in after-school activities. 

Upon reading the Chemical Health Policy, we both noticed it is mostly about legislation, and little about education. (It mentions counseling, but discourages those who may need help from asking for it.) However, as everywhere in life, there are teachable moments to extract. Let’s extract them.

1. It’s always easier to legislate than educate. However, the results are commensurate with the effort. The forbidden fruit remains the most tempting one. Those who might be deterred by the policy today would not likely be deterred after it goes out of effect, like those having 21 deadly drinks on their 21st birthday.
2. You may hear that the School Committee had the best intentions in mind. Unfortunately, good intentions do not guarantee success. In fact, the worst brutalities in history stemmed from the best intentions.
3. You can always find some research to prove what you want to prove, regardless how unbelievable your point is. Prohibition failed in this country a 100 years ago, and keeps failing in many other countries, but some people would keep trying anyway.
4. Does this policy really change nothing in your life?  It seems so, because you make the right choices anyway, don’t you? However:

• You know this policy will hurt your peers, and you remember the famous saying by Pastor Martin Niemoller: 

First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

• Today you can take pride in making the right choices on your own. Will you be so proud when the school administration, or any other form of government, coerces you into making the right choices?

1. You may hear that the majority voted this way, and the minority should shut up. That’s a simplistic understanding of democracy. If majority were always right, then all our presidents would have been perfect. If the minority were always silenced, then new ideas would never sprout, and we would still believe the Earth is flat.

However the minority must submit to the majority. Your signed contract is attached to this letter.  Bring it to the school, and don’t miss opportunities to learn, even when your school administration gets distracted.

Your father,
Mark Chulsky, Swampscott