America is driven by fear of litigation

America has come to believe that safety is normal and natural, and anything that in retrospect entailed danger and led to a bad outcome, is a tort. Lawyers keep telling us that this makes life better. It doesn't look like it to me.

In our local Kiwanis club, our meetings are held about a mile from the high school, where an affiliated Key Club operates. One of the members of the Key Club wants to come to the meeting this Wednesday. We need to transport her.

But here's the kicker. Kiwanis International advises each Kiwanis Club that at no time should one Kiwanis member be alone with one youth in any activity relating to Kiwanis. The includes bringing someone to a meeting. So we can't just send one member over to the high school to make the trip, for about two minutes in broad daylight. We need to get two people. If we can do it, fine. Otherwise, I guess it won't happen.

Having the two clubs interact is a positive thing, but we are so afraid of litigation that we are raise barriers that will inevitably lead to less of it. If Kiwanis ran a summer camp with a swimming pool, the insurance liability would be enormous, because some kid might be injured. The same kid, not going to camp, might be injured in his backyard pool, but then there would be no one to sue.

Some people, entrusted with the care of youth through churches, nonprofits, and so forth, have used their positions abusively, but they represent a tiny fraction of the total. Most abuse is in the home. When we insist that all organized alternatives to home activities be perfect, we ensure that there will be less of it and that kids will be at greater risk for more hours. For some reason, we can't fix this.

Perhaps it has something to do with the enormous contribution which trial lawyers make to political campaigns.