Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for July 24, 2016

Wish I had more talks with my uncles. I’m busy, they’re busy… that sort of thing.

How did Max get to swing on that branch?

We climbed trees growing up. More kids need to do that instead of stupid Pokemongo. And the parents need to stop from stopping kids climbing up trees- within reason of course. And yes, sometimes we fell out of them. No broken bones happened. Lots of fun and good memories.

I’m really going to miss the “You gotta love August” strips!

Yakety Sax I agree, but there are FOUR Sundays!

For a short time, a flying fish.

For the northern US, you can’t go swimming in june because the water is still too cold, so August is good if you can afford a nice vacation (which a lot of people can’t). If that is the case, I vote for “you gotta love September” Warm days, cool nights, glorious weather – the best month of the year (along with the beginning of October)>

I see.

I’m not wrong though. People get distracted and people get hurt sometimes when doing fun stuff. It doesn’t make a difference if they fall from a tree they were climbing or fall down because they weren’t paying attention because of Pokemon Go. It doesn’t matter if they run into traffic after an errand basketball, because they are doing a stunt on a skateboard or because there is a Pikachu on the other side of the road. Some people will do that no matter the reason and many, many more will not do it because they are careful no matter the distraction. Pokemon Go isn’t the problem, people doing stupid stuff is.

All I see here is a bunch of people prejudiced against video games for reasons not very clear to me. I myself don’t play Pokemon Go but I have seen and read so many stories about the positive effects Pokemon Go had on people’s lives (from an autistic kids suddenly socializing and voluntarily breaking their strict routine for Pokemon, to a disabled and depressed woman finding a reason to get out of bed and outside in the morning, to many run of the mill kids and adults who would usually spend the day inside in front of a screen, being out in the sunshine and getting their Vitamin D production on), that I will gladly defend it.

However, while doing so I still don’t feel it necessary to read a post that starts with a mocking “how many people did you say walked into traffic while climbing a tree?” or treat the opinion stated in it with any kind of respect. Especially since I have not mocked or derided anyone and only tried to explain my point of view in a calm and respectful manner.