<<<Every one of them is at least as great a
tragedy as some feckless dilettante flying his
toy into the ocean. One wonders what he thought
in the moment that he realized that money and
fame wouldn't exempt him from paying the price
for overstepping his bounds.>>>
I assume he thought, I'm going to die, I'm a fool, I'm going to die and I don't know what to do to stop it, and I'm killing these two, too, oh my god we're all going to die because I don't know what to do, we're going to die, we're going to die, and all because of me, I did it, we're going to die. And then he did.
It makes my blood run cold to imagine his thoughts during the plunge.
I feel the same about celebrity-worshipping as you do, I'm sure. And I also don't object to tasteless humor if it's funny.
Still...
<<<With less than 100 flying hours, an unfamiliar
aircraft, and no certification for night flying, taking off
under those conditions was an act of blatant stupidity. If you
were driving at 90 mph on wet roads, at night, and wrapped
your car around a tree, would that have "just happened"?>>>
Yep, it was stupid and immature and he used his toy irresponsibly.
But it's so facile to dismiss a death with a "Oh, he asked for it, being so stupid."
I've done stupid, irresponsible things, but I survived. I'll bet you have, too. Stupider than brashly, irresponsibly overestimating your skills as a pilot.
Dying, and knowing you're taking others with you, is too high a price to pay for being a cocky fool. If it were the usual price, we'd all be dead. And since it's too high a price, it seems cruel to communicate such cavalierness about it, to communicate something roughly like, Who cares, he asked for it.
I know it's sometimes hard to feel for the trials of the very fortunate. Actually, mostly near impossible. But this is death. He didn't do a vicious thing, he did a stupid one.
<<<I have no respect for people who don't know and
respect their own limits, no matter who their daddies were.>>>
The issue isn't for whom you have "respect," I don't think. I don't have any particular, notable "respect" for him, either. But he died, terrifyingly, and so sorry for his folly, as they fell out of the sky.
So you're seeming rather hard hearted to me, Steven. Or at least unimaginative.
<<<Every day, thousands of people are shot, stabbed, blown up,
tortured, maimed and killed in accidents that were far
beyond their control, killed by diseases they don't
understand, etc., etc., etc. Every one of them is at least as
great a tragedy as some feckless dilettante flying his toy
into the ocean. >>>
Of course. We do weigh certain things when someone dies, and draw our conclusions. I'm only suggesting that yours here are hard, Steven, all things considered. |
