Couch And Schools, Food And Guns...

by Bill Gouveia for the Sun Chronicle

When I was a kid, my mother had one rule that got enforced more than any other: You could not sit on our living room couch with any food or drink.

I didn’t think our couch was all that great, but it was to Mom. She wanted it protected, and with three kids she knew that was a challenge. So she didn’t just have one rule, or one focus on how to get that job done.

Mom tried covering the couch. She had some cloth covers, and one time tried plastic. She had it treated with some kind of stuff (remember, this was a long time ago) that was supposed to protect it. She also tried permanently banning us from the room, but that had limited success at best.

The only thing that sort of worked was not allowing us to take food in the living room. Of course, this just made us want to bring food there even more. We told her we were responsible eaters. We had been around food our whole lives, knew how to handle it, and that the right to eat was basic to who we were.

But Mom was smarter than that. She explained to us that she wasn’t banning all food — that would be silly and unreasonable. But you simply don’t bring some food into certain areas, not because food itself was bad or evil — but because almost every time you brought food into a living room, bad things happened.

I wish those in Congress and the White House would follow Mom’s commonsense example when it comes to the issue of guns, assault-style weapons, and trying to stop school shootings.

Like the aforementioned couch, we have done a lot to protect our schools.

We are designing them with safety in mind. We are installing alarm systems, stronger glass and doors, and even placing resource officers or security guards inside.

But unlike Mom, we haven’t gotten our leaders to understand that covering up something, whether a couch or a school, is not going to stop the real problem. You have to make sure what you are protecting them from is kept away. Otherwise, you will ultimately fail.

Is this a silly comparison? Of course it is. But to be honest, I’m running out of ways to logically explain this problem. I’m not sure anymore how to get through to those who are so wrapped up in their right to have guns of all types that they can’t understand the concept of the greater good, our collective safety, and – to draw another silly comparison – keeping your couch safe for those who sit on it.

Eventually, Mom allowed us to have certain types of food in the living room.

But the foods that could cause the most damage — those that would stain and cause irreparable harm — were only to be eaten elsewhere. We were not allowed to have them outside of the kitchen or dining room.

I keep thinking that if it worked for Mom (minus the occasional renegade eater), then doesn’t it make sense when applied to guns and schools?

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.

Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and longtime local official. He can be emailed at billsinsidelook@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @Billinsidelook.