I know when it happened, I can pinpoint the exact moment in time. December 18, 1988 when the US Consumer Product Safety Commission re-issued its warning that the lawn darts were dangerous and should be destroyed because they are banned in the United States. Effectively on that day we began creating the biggest generation of snowflakes, that we call children, the world has ever seen.

Certainly, ambulance chasing lawyers played a big part in all of the warning labels, safety equipment, banning of toys or playground equipment, but this liberal idea that we have to keep kids from feeling any type of pain or suffering any type of injury is the driving force behind what we see today; safe zones where certain people cannot go or certain words cannot be said. Walking helmets being a requirement in Denmark because someone might be looking down and walk into a pole or elbow and knee pads being put on kids utilizing playground equipment.

Bad things happen sometimes, it is an undeniable truths of life that no matter how careful you might be accidents happen and people get hurt. This past week during a New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins baseball game, a young girl sitting down the third base line was hit in the face by a line drive foul ball. There was nothing her dad could do to stop the ball and she suffered serious injuries. At this point it’s unclear how permanent injuries will be or the extent of the effect those injuries will have upon her cognitive abilities.

Of course the lawyers are already contacting the parents and want to sue the Yankees and Major League Baseball. Maybe they have a case because there really is a simple solution to this concern that professional baseball teams have tried to avoid implementing. That is putting netting between the stands and the field, all the way down first and third base lines. They’ve had netting or fencing behind home plate for a long time in order to protect fans because a tipped ball is coming so fast there isn’t time to react. But professional teams have hesitated to extend that safety measure further because fans have complained that it ruins their view of the game.

But we now have serious consideration being given to other measures to help protect the fans and if 20 years ago you had tried to tell someone these things would be seriously considered, they would’ve laughed you out of the room. There are some groups, ranging from consumer advocacy groups to medical organization, saying that everyone in the first 10 or 12 rows should be issued helmets. Others are saying that it should be limited to anyone under 18 and maybe those helmets should have facemasks or visors. Are you kidding me? This is what we’ve come to? People seriously think that we should issue helmets to somebody watching a baseball game? They believe this is a serious solution to the problem?

Six or seven professional teams have now said they will put netting all the way down the first and third base lines. It’s that easy, problem solved, end of story. Anyone who has ever attended a Little League game or any level baseball game and sat behind home plate has had to watch the game through a chain-link fence. It’s a very minor inconvenience and it has no doubt prevented serious injury and probably saved a few lives. But anytime we are inconvenienced people scream bloody murder as if the world is coming to an end. That’s what has kept many major league teams from putting up the netting until now. If the worst problem we had as a nation or a society was whether or not to hang netting at our baseball fields, this probably would be an important issue that we could debate in the national spotlight. But I do think we’ve got a few more problems are much more serious than inconveniencing your view of a bunch of overpaid spoiled brats playing the game for a living.

But we have allowed a small group of people to create this situation for somebody suggesting spectator helmets is actually considered a serious discussion that needs to be had. We require people to put stupid warning labels on everything including telling people not to use a toaster in the bathtub. If you are such a moron that you think using a toaster or any other electrical appliance in a pool of water is a good idea then maybe you do need to become a Darwin Award nominee. You certainly don’t need to be reproducing and we need to know who you are so we can prevent it. It’s time that we, the average citizen with a modicum of common sense, call out these people for what they are; self aggrandizing, overly important, egotistical morons. It will take a while but eventually they will crawl back under the rock from which they came out 40 years ago.