The Oxford Dictionary defines common sense as: “Good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.”

Common sense is the knowledge that all humans have or should have. We should begin acquiring it from the day we are born. For example, “animals don’t drive cars” or “my mother is older than me.”

The following are signs that someone is lacking in commonsense.

1. They believe everything they hear without question. This seems to characterize the thinking of many who believe that climate change is the work of the oil and gas industry and coal companies and accept without question the words of people like AOC, Al Gore, and Bill Nye.

2. They have trouble thinking critically with the ability to analyze information and draw conclusions based on real evidence. That would characterize some voters and politicians.

3. They see things in black and white and believe that everything has to be one way or the other. Both “Never Trumpers” and those who wear MAGA hats could be described that way.

4. They make the same mistakes over and over. That could be the board of a certain local village.

5. They are unable to come up with solutions to problems. That sounds like many politicians in both parties.

6. They are incapable of understanding sarcasm, humor, or irony. President Biden and Mitch McConnell could be characterized this way.

Politics and government provide us with great examples of a lack of commonsense. Our founding documents, The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are regularly ignored by our elected representatives. This was illustrated by the remarks of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy who when asked during the COVID pandemic what role the First Amendment played in his decision to restrict attendance at religious services and at other gatherings, he stated proudly that it played no role. Nor did common sense.

Then there was the lack common sense displayed by staff and faculty at a school in Mississippi that had a policy of zero tolerance for guns. During the COVID pandemic a teacher was teaching a distance learning class when she noticed a gun suddenly appear in the hands of a student when he moved it out of the way of a younger sibling.

It didn’t matter that the student was in his own bedroom miles from the school or that the gun was an unloaded BB gun, the rules said he had to be suspended and he was. The schools are trying to take over the upbringing of our children but are their bedrooms now part of the school?

I recently learned about the new law that requires that auto insurance policies now include spousal liability coverage unless the policyholder opts out in writing. This is just another way for insurance companies to take more of our money and for state government to interfere more in our lives. Any member of the Assembly or Senate who voted for this bill obviously checked their commonsense at the door.

A glaring example of a lack of common sense is the village of Fredonia’s continuing resolve to go it alone with its water supply when it doesn’t have to. Perhaps the village fathers think their citizens and folks at the college enjoy boil water orders.

The village could tie in with Dunkirk and the north county system and end their water problems. The whole thing smacks of that definition of insanity attributed to Albert Einstein that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Over the years many have questioned Gov. Kathy Hochul’s grasp on common sense. When Hochul was Erie County Clerk she instituted a new system for handling documents sent to the clerk’s office for filing.

She then ran for congress and won. She left the clerk’s office with the system only partially implemented and apparently with no one fully aware of how it worked. This resulted in a years’ worth of important documents accumulating in a mailroom.

Now the governor is implementing new gun laws that takes New York out of the ATF/FBI National Instant Crime Check System and replaces it with one run by the New York State Police. In addition to background checks for gun purchases there will now be background checks costing $2.50 for ammunition purchases whether it be for hunting, skeet, trap, target practice or even by school gun clubs.

Besides these changes the governor has proudly announced that any information gathered by the new system will not be shared with the federal system according to the article in last Wednesday’s OBSERVER. Governor, I don’t want government getting any more of our information then necessary but in this one instance sharing data would be the commonsense thing to do if it keeps guns out of the hands of criminals. This law defies common sense.

The new procedure won’t affect criminals who don’t go to gun stores to buy their ammunition and guns. The only people punished are law abiding gun owners and those selling guns and ammunition. As Forrest Fisher said in his OBSERVER article “The Bill of Rights is in trouble here.”

I close with the words of George Bernard Shaw who said “Common sense is not a gift. It is a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who don’t have it.”

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com