Leave Sarah Palin alone! (alternate title: Death by TV)

If you missed my first blog entry on this subject, or if you just read the title instead of the whole article, you probably missed what my first blog entry was all about:

• NOT Sarah Palin!
• NOT Alaska!
• NOT her husband!
• NOT her children!
• NOT the number of children (although she might be helping to overpopulate the earth)!
• NOT her qualifications or lack thereof!
• NOT her speaking ability (or her ability to bash those with whom she disagrees)!
• NOT abortion!
• NOT unwed children!
• NOT pregnant teenagers!
• NOT sex education (or lack thereof)!

No.

None of the above.

Instead, my first blog entry on this subject, for those of you who neglected to read past the headline (I guess I should have expected that; it is the political season after all. LOL) was actually about taking care of our own children and not worrying about someone else's children who live halfway across the planet. Rather:

This past week here in San Diego, two children, both less than a year old, died from having televisions fall on them. A follow-up appeared in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune. Unfortunately, the article is not available online, which is rare with the Union-Tribune, so I'll have to summarize:

Sue Cox, trauma services director at Rady Children's Hospital, reports that 28 children were treated at their hospital during the past two years. That's two per month! And that's just at their hospital! Of the 28 children treated, one was 8 and the other 27 were younger than three.

There have been three deaths.

As Ms. Cox said, "People think that if something's heavy, it's stable, but if you go behind a dresser or bookcase [or television] and push on it, you'll see [what can happen]."

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning in September 2006 about televisions falling over on children. In the first seven months of 2006, 10 children died.

Ms Cox continues: "It's a really bad idea to put TVs or VCRs on top of dressers. That is really enticing to kids, who love to reach for those things or pull out dresser drawers and climb to get what they want."

In my own words:

Check your house and talk to your own relatives, your children's friends' parents, business associates, and anyone else about this danger. Heck, do a blog about it for your own customers. Send out a helpful reminder email or postcard to your Clients. Take action. After all, we need all of our children because among them will come the next Michael Phelps.