Common Sense

I am losing faith that there is such a thing as "common sense", because it seems that having sense, of any sort, is not all that common.

A few examples:

• It doesn't make sense to ban an 8 year-old boy from wearing a hat, because it has army men on it
• It doesn't make sense for the Coast Guard stop boats from cleaning up oil in the Gulf, because they don't have the minimum number of life vests.
• It doesn't make sense to attack a group of Hell's Angels bikers with a puppy. I wish I were making this one up.
• It doesn't make sense for a judge to give someone a month in jail for blowing a bubble with gum in court.
• It doesn't make sense to leave millions to a dog so it can be pampered.

What it comes down to is a lack of prudence.

Prudence is the virtue that helps guide all others by showing the best way forward in a course of action. The Catechism says this about prudence:

1806 - Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers." Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. the prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.

I think I have changed my mind.
We don't lack common sense.
We lack common prudence.

UPDATE - Deacon Greg shines the light on how some want to stop kids from having best friends. I wish I were kidding.