A tale of two different headlines about high schools this week

Today, the front page of the local Düsseldorf paper ran a lead article about how there was a shortage of sports instructors at local NRW (the State I live in, and of which Düsseldorf is the capital city). A few days ago, in the same space, the headline was about yet ANOTHER shooting at an American high school with 17 dead, including a popular sports instructor.

Don't get wrong, Germany is no paradise on earth. In the same paper today, there is an interview with the archetypical Bayer boss, explaining their takeover of Monsanto, smiling and lying through his teeth ("In North and South America, where Monsanto does 80 per cent of its business there isn't this kind of basic criticism [that Agrichemicals are the new nuclear power]. In the USA, Monsanto counts as one of the most beloved employers." ). So now, the move to allow Roundup as a carcinogenic pesticide will heat up in Germany--to please Bayer-Monsanto stockholders, and to kill off Germans who eat vegetables. The Bayer guy claims in the article, presumably with a straight face, that there is no scientific basis for claiming Roundup is a carcinogen.

Plus, the auto industry wants taxpayers to pay for fixing diesel motors so they won't pollute as much as they do (as if Germans aren't taxed enough as it is).

But even so, those two front page headlines stand out in SUCH bold contrast to each other. Both countries have to fight smug, fat, rich, uncaring polluters. Both have to fight to make tax laws fairer. But only one of them seems paralyzed in an effort to stop high school kids getting shot to death on campus on a regular basis. The other is concerned with hiring more sports instructors. If the contrast doesn't smack you in the face, there is a screw loose somewhere.