Writes a friend:

Lew,

In observing the reactions, and reactions to the reactions, to the death of George Floyd, I am reminded of government schools and what I call The Spitball Punishment.

Years ago I observed in government classrooms, that once in a while throughout the year, one student would take a straw from lunch, take a small wad of paper into his mouth and wet it, and then shoot the wet spitball through the straw straight at the blackboard.

As shocking, distasteful, and immature as it is, it is a mere prank that should be ignored, because to react is exactly what the spitballer wants.

Being that it was not possible for the teacher to know who did it, and being that no one wanted to rat him out, the teacher was left with few options of punishment. But then, American teachers are not the brightest or most creative of creatures.

Again, I would say the best way to handle this crude attention-seeker is to snub him as too trifling to notice.

But, no, invariably, public school teachers are so bent against students, that such a spitballer gives most teachers the excuse to punish, punish, punish, which seems to be what teachers in government schools are always looking for.

Over and over, the punishment meted out for the mischief of the single spitballer was that the whole class would be harshly and collectively berated for long minutes, then punished by taking away their recess on the playground outside.

The point is, today, the authority figure looks to punish, even sadistically, and will punish all the population (whether there are two or there are millions), rather than punish the actual rule breaker.

Thus, in America today, in a country raised on The Spitball Punishment mentality, Americans yield to unearned collective guilt which begets an undue collective punishment.

Although we already have a justice system which is guaranteed to put George Floyd’s killer in prison for life, America seems to be lining up for its punishment over his unfortunate death.

Woe unto thee, Americans!