Friday, May 27, 2005

People I Don't Feel Sorry For

I got an email from someone in the office asking for money for their daughter who was severely injured in a skydiving accident.

This reminded me of a story about Yosemite national park who had banned base jumping off the cliffs. A group of base jumpers decided to do a jump in protest. They would be arrested and have their gear confiscated upon landing, but they wanted to make a "statement."

One of the women decided not to use her best gear because it would end up confiscated by the police. This resulted in equipment failure and, to the horror of the police, onlookers, and her husband who was filming the jump, her Very Gruesome Death.

I guess that showed them.

I have no patience with these things. There is a reason why the police didn't want people base jumping as this woman so idiotically proved. However, I don't think these things should be illegal. If your own safety and the welfare of your kids is less of a priority than some useless thrill, then fine. Remove yourself from the gene pool and see if I care. Just don't ask me to feel sorry for you when you have broken every bone in your body and are paralyzed from the neck down. Or dead.

This is leading to a whole lot of other people I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for.

1. Anyone with an STD (caught through their own carelessness).

2.NASCAR racers (sorry Angi)/Extreme sport participators.

3. Illegal Drug Addicts

4.Parents whose underage children are or were illegal drug addicts.

1. STDs are the most preventable illnesses in the entire world. If you are an adult and you didn't catch it from a cheating partner, then don't ask me to feel sorry for you.

2. Dangerous sports. Everyone knows this. I can't feel sorry for you.

3. You have everyone from the government to churches telling you they are bad. Don't whine to me when you are addicted.

4. I saw a news program about a 16 year old boy who died of a drug overdose. Heroin I think. His parents had found out about his addiction when he was 14, so God only knows how long he'd been doing it. The parents put him in rehab and he proclaimed himself clean. He came back to much the same life he'd had before.

They interviewed his parents who tearfully said he told them he was going out with his friends, then he never came home and they finally got a call from the police or the hospital, I can't remember which.

I usually only pay half-attention to shows featuring weeping parents. I'm usually preoccupied with something else, so I hear the weeping and wailing and feel vague stabs of pity for the afflicted. In this case, I watched the whole thing, and then I was furious. If I had been that interviewer, I would have bitch-slapped both of them. Instead, the voice over marveled at how the children of nice parents with money were becoming addicted to street drugs.

I'll tell you how, bitches. Johnny and Suzy Parent had no balls. God forbid they punish the little darling for breaking curfew. God forbid they give the little darling a curfew at all. He might get mad at them. And God forbid the little darling gets mad them. That can't be healthy. There must be peace at all costs. Well, he's at peace now.

But I have to wonder at parents whose children become drug addicts. How do they not know? I seem to recall many many excuses, but very little acknowledgment of responsibility. Not that I'm claiming to be the world's greatest parent, but I notice when my kids are silent and go running. It usually means an heirloom has been destroyed. I notice when the neighbor brats scream three doors down and I go running to make sure it's not them. I think about my children and knives and I go running to make sure they're out of reach. I hear a story about children strangling themselves in window blinds and I take mine out and burn them in effigy. Well, I don't go that far, but you get the point.

One beating with a belt, and the kid might be alive today. One "No-son-we're-all-going-to-a-movie-tonight" and the kid might be alive today. But in lieu of actual discipline, or actual involvement, those parents let their underage, drug addicted son tell them where he was going and when he'd be back. I want to feel sorry for them, but I just can't.

All the time, I hear things like, "I did drugs and nothing bad happened to me" and "I did drugs, so I can't tell them not to or I'll be a hypocrite."

BULL. SHIT. This has to be the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard and if you believe it, your children should never have children. I smoked pot. I drove drunk ONCE. I also ran around with a butcher knife trying to stab one of our chickens when I was about 6 (don't ask). This doesn't mean I'm going to let my children do any of those things because now that I am an adult, I realize the dangers of those actions. And I don't want anything bad to happen to my kids.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

TESTING

Jen said...

I am right there with you, I actually consider it Natural Selection at work. If you are stupid enough to say, climb a skyscraper with just a grappling hook and a pair of special shoes, then you deserve to go splat. One less moron out there breeding. You want to change your tire after dark on the side of a 5 lane freeway without a real shoulder to pull over on? Go ahead, get squashed.
I just hope they meet their demise prior to breeding, I think it sucks when people don't realize how there own stupid decisions affect their children.

Anonymous said...

AMEN Sister!
Parenting is THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB YOU'LL EVER HAVE!
But, one of the biggest problems is today's parents were raised during a period of "empowerment." Today's parents want so badly for their offspring to be perfect, they put them on a pedestal and refuse to believe they can do anything wrong. It's always somebody else's fault. It's the media's fault, it's the video games fault, it's the schools fault, it's the police's fault, etc. They blame Wal-mart and society when their little gene-pool reject gets busted for shoplifting ... it's incredible.
... and people wonder why I walk around in a total state of horrific amazment ...

Brighton said...

Was it the movie Parenthood where the guy said, "You have to have a license to fish, hunt, and drive a car- but any moron can have a child".
I agree with you- with high risk behaviour comes a high risk of bad consequences.

Anonymous said...

And please add in those people who buy a house at the end of a major airport runway and then complain about the airplane noise! Or the people that buy a house next to a landfill and then complain about the smell! Hello! What were you thinking? Go get 'em Z!

Anonymous said...

On : 5/27/2005 1:47:04 PM magikgrl (www) said:


Very good points Zelda dear, heh, however, I just put a deposit for my first skydive. The drug addiction thing, i couldn't agree more with, ever seen that show "Intervention" on A&E? Check it out, quite interesting

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On : 5/27/2005 2:10:20 PM Zelda (www) said:


Robert - You are so right. Parenting is first and foremost.

Magikgirl - I have seen Intervention. It is extremely interesting. I can't say I like it because it is hard to enjoy others' pain, but they are invaluable cautionary tales.

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On : 5/27/2005 2:23:09 PM Gooch (www) said:


Probably a good 18 years ago a protester laid down on the train tracks near the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Northern CA to protest the delivery of munitions for weapons development or some such thing. Anyway, he lost his legs as a result. It was at that impressionable age of 13/14 that I realized that I have no sympathy for anything bad that happens to someone while he or she is in the process of doing something completely idiotic.

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On : 5/27/2005 2:50:34 PM micki (www) said:


It amazes me how many of the parents in various interviews on different topics are all in denial about the role they played in allowing things to happen. Too many just want to be a friend instead of a parent or just don't care.

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On : 5/28/2005 9:26:58 AM angi (www) said:


I couldn't agree more with parents of drugged out kids.

as parents, it is our job to know, at all times where our kdis are, who they are with, what they are doing, we are supposed to be in their face, on their back, about unusual behavior. We can't sit around with blinders ona nd expect everything to resolve itself.

Rehab is all fine and good,but when a kid comes out of rehab, and goes right back to hanging with the same kids, then what do parents expect?

Oh, about NASCAR, come on, everybody enjoys a good crash once and a while.

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On : 5/28/2005 11:43:43 PM Ciggy (www) said:


Ahhhhhhhh, I love the smell of Darwinism in the morning. It smells like ...evolution!

Hehe...


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On : 5/28/2005 11:44:27 PM Ciggy (www) said:


Which, BTW, is why I favor drug legalization. Let not the law get in the way of a Darwin Award winner, and his "prize". ;)



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On : 5/29/2005 10:46:24 PM Jeanette (www) said:


I'm not a parent yet. But, Zelda, this has got to be one of the best posts you've done. At least in my opinion.

I've re-read it at least twice. Every word of it. Just ... yeah. The best.

Jay said...

California may be the Land of Frivolous Lawsuits, but we did have one very good law until a couple of years ago. It indemnified makers of "patently dangerous" products like base-jumping gear, firearms, and tobacco products that anyone at the moron or higher intelligence level knows when used as directed have a very good chance of killing the user or someone nearby.

Unfortunately in order to get some cash out of the big national tobacco settlement the law was scrapped. Right after that hang gliding spots and skate parks started closing down.

Can't we just have a notice put on every birth certificate that says- "Life is terminal, participate at your own risk."?

Jay

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Nice blog Zelda. Your posts were interesting reading. I was looking for skydiving equipment related information and found your site. I have a skydiving equipment site. You'll find info on skydiving gear, equipment, drop zones, powered parachutes, tandem sky diving, base jumping and more! Please try and visit it, see what you think and enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Nice blog Zelda. Your posts were interesting reading. I was looking for skydiving equipment related information and found your site. I have a skydiving equipment site. You'll find info on skydiving gear, equipment, drop zones, powered parachutes, tandem sky diving, base jumping and more! Please try and visit it, see what you think and enjoy!
If you have a site similar to mine and would like to exchange links, please contact me through my website.

Anonymous said...

Hi Zelda, very unique blog you have! I was looking for skydiving equipment related information and came across your site. Very good info, I'm definitely going to bookmark you! I have a skydiving equipment site. You'll find info on skydiving gear, equipment, drop zones, powered parachutes, tandem sky diving, base jumping and more! Please visit and enjoy!
If you have a site similar to mine and would like to exchange links, please contact me through my website.