Re: Female teen missing on round-the-world sail
First and foremost, I'm glad she was found safe and sound. I truly am. But I am also curious about the cost of her rescue. Is she or her family going to pay for it? The article I read describes a "massive" search and rescue mission with ships being diverted to look for her and one to actually go pick her up.
Perhaps I am just cranky tonight but I'm tired of Americans voluntarily and foolishly endangering themselves and then expecting someone (usually at taxpayer expense) to go rescue them. In this moment of crankiness, I think if someone voluntarily, deliberately and foolishly chooses to do something high risk, and especially if they know the risks, then they should take responsibility for their actions and should darned well be on their own to figure out their own rescue when it goes bad. I don't mean what is now a "normal" risk like sailing on a commercial cruise boat (which does have a risk of sinking or other accidents but does have safety precautions and staff and are generally planned for safe routes), or flying on a commercial airplane or driving a car in a routine manner. I mean like sending a 16 year old out alone in winter seas to sail around the world. Or like Laura Ling and Euna Lee knowingly illegally crossing over into North Korea, getting caught and begging our government to go save them. Or the American hikers who insisted on hiking along the border of Iraq and Iran despite repeated warnings not to do it because it is dangerous and easy to accidentally cross the border into Iran. Now that they have crossed into Iran and been captured, they're begging the government and anyone else to rescue them. and especially since I believe none of these people were doing what they were doing for the betterment of mankind (eg: to cure cancer, end a war, etc.) but just for their own satisfaction and/or a means to gain fame and perhaps prestige. Ling and Lee may argue now that they were doing it to help the poor citizens of North Korea and they probably were also doing that, but I believe they also wanted the boost in their careers that would result from such an "exclusive".
I'm not saying that competent people shouldn't be free to do what they want (within the limits of the law, of course) but that if they choose to do so, they shouldn't expect the public to pay the price for their rescue. In Ling's and Lee's case, it wasn't just a monetary cost. North Korea now thinks the US "owes" them for letting Ling and Lee go.
First and foremost, I'm glad she was found safe and sound. I truly am. But I am also curious about the cost of her rescue. Is she or her family going to pay for it? The article I read describes a "massive" search and rescue mission with ships being diverted to look for her and one to actually go pick her up.
Perhaps I am just cranky tonight but I'm tired of Americans voluntarily and foolishly endangering themselves and then expecting someone (usually at taxpayer expense) to go rescue them. In this moment of crankiness, I think if someone voluntarily, deliberately and foolishly chooses to do something high risk, and especially if they know the risks, then they should take responsibility for their actions and should darned well be on their own to figure out their own rescue when it goes bad. I don't mean what is now a "normal" risk like sailing on a commercial cruise boat (which does have a risk of sinking or other accidents but does have safety precautions and staff and are generally planned for safe routes), or flying on a commercial airplane or driving a car in a routine manner. I mean like sending a 16 year old out alone in winter seas to sail around the world. Or like Laura Ling and Euna Lee knowingly illegally crossing over into North Korea, getting caught and begging our government to go save them. Or the American hikers who insisted on hiking along the border of Iraq and Iran despite repeated warnings not to do it because it is dangerous and easy to accidentally cross the border into Iran. Now that they have crossed into Iran and been captured, they're begging the government and anyone else to rescue them. and especially since I believe none of these people were doing what they were doing for the betterment of mankind (eg: to cure cancer, end a war, etc.) but just for their own satisfaction and/or a means to gain fame and perhaps prestige. Ling and Lee may argue now that they were doing it to help the poor citizens of North Korea and they probably were also doing that, but I believe they also wanted the boost in their careers that would result from such an "exclusive".
I'm not saying that competent people shouldn't be free to do what they want (within the limits of the law, of course) but that if they choose to do so, they shouldn't expect the public to pay the price for their rescue. In Ling's and Lee's case, it wasn't just a monetary cost. North Korea now thinks the US "owes" them for letting Ling and Lee go.
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