,,,And I'm Supposed To Feel Sorry For These People?

Well, Happy Victoria Day to you all. Say what you want about the monarchy or whether we should still be celebrating the life of someone who was born in 1819, but hey, it's nice not to have to go into the office, so I'll be happy to continue singing "God Save The Queen" and continue to support our British-style parliamentary system.

So my wife, kids and I were going to spend the day at a local conservation area, where I was going to get in hopefully a decent day of fishing and enjoying the outdoors and creation. Unfortunately, with very strong winds outside and nippy temperatures (my son and I went out to play baseball this morning and he needed mitts after a while - he was the batter), we thought we'd nix the idea. Besides, casting in windy weather is no fun. So we stayed indoors today and my wife played cards while my son watched his newest Veggie Tales DVD and my daughter slept. Well, the deck of cards we used was from the Pizzaville pizza chain, and of course, their advertising worked, since my wife and I got the strange idea that we should order in pizza for lunch. Besides, with the pizza order, I had an opportunity to get a free sleeve of Maxfli Fire golf balls for virtually nothing. My wife brought home the pizza and stuff, and we also got a free newspaper (Toronto Sun - not into the tabloidish trashy style, but hey...) Anyhow, I thought that I'd peruse the complimentary newspaper and see what was happening this weekend in the world.

Well, right on the front of the newspaper was a caption depicting a tragedy on the waters this long weekend in Richmond Hill. It piqued my interest, so I read the article. The details are interesting to note: on Saturday morning, at 1:30AM (that's AM), three young guys went out in a canoe, after a night of drinking and fireworks. The canoe ended up flipping over, and only one of the three swam to shore - the other two are presumed dead. Interviews with loved ones and friends followed, and the tone of the story seemed to want to get the reader to feel sorry for these two guys who presumably lost their lives in an tragedy, and a preventable one at that. I finished the story and turned to my wife, who was downing her coffee, and I said, "do you feel sorry for these guys?" I know I don't. Forget the fact that you drank before going on a boat in the middle of the night. These three clowns weren't even wearing lifejackets. And the boat wasn't theirs - it was taken from a bunch of boats that a neighbour warned them not to take.

I mean, what am I supposed to feel here? Sympathy? Hardly. It's their stupidity that led to their deaths. Of course, in the interviews with friends and families, the two missing canoeists were cited as "role models" and "ideal citizens". I tell you, I've known enough people in my life who engage in this kind of stuff, and it's nothing short of immature and irresponsible. Yeah, it sucks that two of them likely died, but this is sort of how the way the world works - you engage in risky behaviour - you should be prepared to endure the consequences. You reap what you sow.

I flip the page some more...and read about another tragedy that happened in the Toronto area. Three young girls (teenagers) were killed in a car crash on a country road. Of course, tributes pour in, saying how bright and beautiful (as if that makes a difference) they were and how smart they were. Were they? Cops investigating the incident say that these girls driving on a country road decided to make a U-turn, at which point a tractor trailer plowed into them. Now, who does a freaking U-turn on a country road? Sure, it's possible, but it's risky. Unfortunately, the girls paid with their lives. But I'm not sure why people, when being interviewed are blaming God for this - a woman said "how could God do this?" to which a pastor responded "I am honest when I say I do not know". What's God have to do with any of this? They made the choice to make this U-turn. I mean, if I were to run a red light, I know that there is always a chance I'll get into an accident. If I do that, I have to accept the consequences. If I die as a result, I don't expect, nor do I want, people to feel sorry for me and sad for me.

Years ago, my wife and I went to one of the biggest, if not the biggest, provincial park in Ontario. It was awesome going to it - it was like an hour or so driving from one end of the park to the other. Anyhow, my wife and I decided to go canoeing at one point - I can't swim, but she could, but regardless, we both wore life jackets. I did know, however, that there was always a chance my lifejacket my malfunction and given the right conditions, the boat could flip and I could die. I accepted that risk, as low as it was. About 20 minutes into our canoeing, big storm clouds darkened the sky and thunder and lightning started appearing. I nearly shat my pants as I feverously paddled back to shore (which was very far away), all the while hitting rough waters and waves, while I was barking rowing instructions to my wife. That canoe almost tipped over a couple of times, and I was so freaked out since I did not know how to swim. I knew that the risk of something happened to me just increased, but after a while, we managed to get back onto shore. I could have risked staying in the boat, but neither one of us accepted that risk in those conditions.

The next morning, we see police boats and divers near our campsite (which was near the water). They were obviously looking for something, and as it turns out, they were looking for someone. In turning on the news on the radio in our car, we realized that someone had apparently drowned. Story is that it was a young guy, who was camping as part of a honeymoon with his new wife. Both were in their very early 20s. As the report goes, at one point he stood up in his canoe, while his wife was on the beach, and he was flexing muscles or something like that, standing in the canoe. He did not have a lifejacket on. The canoe flipped over and he fell into the water, at which point his panicked wife called for help. They weren't able to locate him until the next day (we, unfortunately, had the misfortune of seeing the police divers drag what appeared to be a human body onto the boat and then covered it up. That was pretty disturbing. I feel for his new wife, but come on, what did you think would happen?

It's incidents like this that prove to me that the true tragedy here is that all of these deaths could have been prevented, with just a bit of common sense, and observing standard safety practices. We are all going to die one day; it's just a shame to hear of senseless deaths like this which could have been easily prevented.

EDIT 5/20/2008: So this morning, on the way to work, I hear about a fatal accident occuring about 7 minutes from my home, last night. A minivan was going 160KM/hour in a 60KM/hour zone. ????!!???? The driver, a 17-year-old, died in the accident when the van hit a lightpost, a tree, and then rolled over several times. His passengers all sustained serious injury. Thankfully no innocent bystanders or other drivers were hurt. I'm glad this guy died - at least that's one dangerous driver permanently off the road. And I'm sure his three surviving friends all learned a valuable lesson as well.