Whenever something happens, tragically or comically, we tend to say afterward, “Perhaps we’ll learn a lesson from this.”

No more. We won’t. Society as a whole doesn’t learn lessons. When someone does something and screws up, perhaps that person learns not to repeat that specific action again. But it’s obvious that pretty much no one else inclined to do the same thing is in any way deterred from trying it themselves.

At least that’s the way it appears.

Have we, as a society, completely given up on patience? Are we so intent on instant gratification that we can no longer wait for the slow turns of the wheels of justice? Are we inclined to do away with trials altogether, and replace them with lynchings and witch hunts?

Based on recent events, that certainly seems to be so. Exhibit A is the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

Cops and officials typically are slow and deliberative. They have to be: Things they say and do can ruin a criminal case.

Tommy Mercer put the passion in compassionate.

He and I didn’t always agree. But there’s no one I’d rather have on the other side of an argument.

No matter what your position, with Tommy you knew exactly where you stood, and you damn sure knew where he stood.

“It was all black or white. There were no gray areas,” says Jim Whitehead, a boyhood friend and former county commission colleague. The two grew up together, and Whitehead, like a great many other people in our community, is heartbroken at Mercer’s death Wednesday at age 70.

In that fantasy of a perfect world that won’t ever exist, surely there would be far less angst over minor details. Especially bureaucratic details.

Instead, we have a school board on Tuesday that likely will be at odds because of a span of seven days in two school calendars.

Set aside the fact that the school board probably shouldn’t be involved in approving the specifics of a school-year calendar anyway. Trustees are supposed to set policy, not get involved in such nuts-and-bolts minutia.