There was a time, we’re guessing, when the phrase “common sense” meant something.
Whoever coined that particular phrase probably looked around, gathered up all the various skills and memes that everyone, from the intellectuals to the simpletons, all understood and took as a given. It then bundled all of this shared human intelligence into a simple two-word phrase.
It’s time to maybe reopen the bundle of concepts held within the confines of the phrase common sense, to see if some of its contents may have shifted in the last few decades.
It’s taken the House Environmental Affairs Committee two tries to force soap manufacturers to cut phosphorous in their products. We happen to like the spirit behind this whole debate. After all, we like fish, and we’re pretty big on healthy water around here.
But the act of defending our waters from phosphorous is not why common sense is taking such a beating these days. It’s the question of who these legislators are defending our waters from.
You see, the proposal recently passed (after a second go-round), but with exemptions for some commercial entities.
We’ll say this slowly, for the benefit of the House Environmental Affairs Committee: commercial entities are the only ones you need to worry about.
Following legislative bans in 17 states similar to the one being attempted in South Carolina, the American Cleaning Institute, which represents most soap and detergent companies, instituted a voluntary ban on phosphorous in their home dishwashing detergent in June of last year.
Go ahead, check that bottle of dishwashing detergent under your sink. Yup, phosphorous free. They pretty much all are at this point.
So if legislators are getting serious (well, as serious as a written warning and a $5,000 fine get) with phosphorous in soap, why are they writing exemptions for the one group that hasn’t instituted a voluntary ban?
Beats us. We must have an older bundle of common sense.