Posted on 06/12/2010 9:51:14 AM PDT by Talisker
I’ve found the slander and contempt expressed on Free Republic towards Abby Sunderland and her parents quite interesting.
Anyone attacking the kid is out of line. The parents on the other hand? Drain Bamaged.
>> So good day to you.
And to you.
Well said!
I am absolutely, one hundred percent, unwilling to accept the consequences of bad choices by other people. People need to accept the responsibility for their own choices--and for the choices they make on behalf of their wards. If I start accepting the consequences of other people's choices, I am anything but free; I become the slave of others.
“Abby and her family were NOT conservative, IMO. They took an UNNECESSARY risk for personal reasons — remember, risk includes the possibility of failure — knowing full well that if something happened, they could not be responsible to provide the navy and aircraft required to rescue their daughter. A thoughtful, responsible CONSERVATIVE would not take such a risk for such a reason knowing that a huge cost would be required of others should they fail. And satisfying an ego, writing a book, breaking a record is not sufficient reason to put the burden and expense of failure on an innocent party.”
Wait, so you are saying that a conservative pilot of a small aircraft has mechanical failure shouldn’t want or expect rescue?
Oh. I thought “vanities” were supposed to be marked.
“You’re so full of crap I can smell you from here!”
Smells like teen spirit...
but that also means acting responsibly. I would not let my kids engage in adventures that put others in danger. That's not conservative nor is it communist to point this out as the original post suggested.
If the rescue boat by some mischance had floundered and gone down with the crew we be would singing a different tune .
If she wants to continue good for her, but let her parents put together a support boat and trail a few miles behind
A study of the psychology here would be interesting. What is there in the achievement of one that so threatens the well-being of others -- non-achievers? We all have some discontent in us with our lot; unhappy with the misfortune that we are not great men and women, our endeavors are not acknowledged by the world. But many of us manifest this in a tendency to disparage the deeds of others who are more prone to greatness: bring the great men down to our level so to speak. We find this also in the envy we have of rich men -- let's tax them so that they have no more than us.
I don't really believe that the issue here is the cost to Australian taxpayers that riles some of these people. I also don't believe that the issue is whether or not the Sunderlands are perfect parents. The level of hatred -- yes, I use the word "hatred" intentionally -- exhibited on these threads about the Abby exploits must be empowered by some deeper psychological motivation. The best answer I can come up with is envy, deriving from lack of self worth.
I totally agree with you. As I said elsewhere, David Farragut, who became the U.S. Navy’s first Admiral at age 65, was given command of his first ship at age 12.
Teens can do amazing things if we give them a chance and hold high expectations from them.
I believe that it is you who are missing the point. Go look at any of the threads about this girl and you will find no shortage of “conservatives” calling for her to be placed into State care and/or her parents to be arrested. In short, they want the Nanny State to raise the girl; not her parents.
“the last 3 generations of safety conscious idiots make me sick! I consider them all less than human!”
Curious....I reserve “less than human” status for terrorists...
Yeah I guess I’m just a heartless bastard for telling my kids they couldnt have a dance party on the roof or not to run with sissors...or that they shouldnt ride dirt bikes wearing shorts and flipflops...silly me...
Here’s the money quote from the ‘caring father’ (now that she’s been rescued)
“her safety is all that matters....”
yeah pal...that ship has sailed....(pun intended)
>> so you are saying that a conservative pilot of a small aircraft has mechanical failure shouldn’t want or expect rescue?
No, I’m not — although your question is a good one and deserves a thoughtful answer. So let me try.
The pilot in question, being a conservative, has kept his plane maintained and his skills up to date. He isn’t taking an unnecessary risk to enter a record book, he is using a tool (his plane) in a way it was meant to be used, to go from point A to point B. He has weighed flying conditions, decided they are in line with his skills and the ability of his plane, and took off FULLY EXPECTING no trouble arriving at his destination.
The plane trip is not the object of his behavior; it’s incidental to his object, which is to get to point B. Certainly, GLORY at the end of the plane trip is not in the plan. The mechanical trouble was unforeseen and in a sense “unreasonable” to expect.
This pilot is therefore in a totally different class from Abby.
For that matter, simplify it even further — a conservative is driving his or her CAR to the store and has an accident. Same thing. Totally different class of behavior.
I’d argue apples and oranges. No “heroic” behavior or motives on the part of the pilot or driver, and no unreasonable risk. Whereas Abby clearly had “heroic” motives, and was taking a risk that the average person would perceive as “huge”.
Now, let’s also go at it another way.
All three - pilot, driver, and Abby — should be rescued out of respect for human life, IMHO.
The question isn’t should Abby have been rescued — in my opinion, she should have, and I think most here agree — but rather, should Abby be WORSHIPPED as a heroine, and RESPECTED and EMULATED as a brave conservative risk taker. (And should those who dare to opine that her stunt was a bad idea be denigrated as nanny-state socialists. :-) )
The pilot and driver engaged in ordinary trips expect no such worship or glory, certainly not when they leave. Do you think Sully expected to be welcomed as a hero if he had successfully landed his plane at its destination instead of in the Hudson River? Of course he didn’t, it was just another day at work.
Yet many (including yourself) think Abby SHOULD be idolized and respected. Just as she herself was expecting adulation should she pull this stunt off successfully.
That’s really where I disagree. I think what she did was dumb; she and her parents expected glory if success but a bailout if not; and, in the aggregate, that behavior is NOT conservative and NOT to be emulated.
Is that clear, more or less?
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/17993/abby+sunderland+rescued+and+details+of+ordeal+begin+to+emerge/
The rescue operation was tricky, as expected, as seas remained large and shifting when the large fishing boat arrived. The pickup was by a crew in a smaller boat and at one point its captain fell overboard and "was fished out in difficult conditions," said a statement from French authorities.
how many rescuers have be killed one day for people to wake up to these stupid parental ego trips/stunts
Ouch. You got me there. I don't know how to respond to this level of argument.
I think safety conscious people are way less than human! started drag racing at 8, boating at 10, plastering at 14 so I could have the fastest street racer at 16 crashed and rolled street and race cars totaled an airplane and I wouldn't think of doing anything short of it again. Baby boomers and after generations are LESS THAN HUMAN trash!
>> I don’t know how to respond to this level of argument.
Of course you do! Just make up some more of your pop psychologist bullshit. That’s what you do in essentially all of your replies, isn’t it?
yeah so what, at one time it felt that this girl was dead,guess by the standards of some folks here we should let a 10 year old fly a fighter jet or go on a solo expedition to the amazon,does child endangerment mean any thing to you people?
Wow big man, I bet you didn’t do as much as Evel Knievel. Compared to him, you’re human trash right?
50% survival is for wussies. Try going down to 5% and we’ll talk big man.
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