Responsibility

I was not going to comment on this but over the last couple of weeks I have been stewing about a lady form Rhode Island whose family rented some canoes in Conway. They wanted to spend a quiet day on the Saco River. I know that when you rent a canoe from any of the reputable outfitters they give you a briefing on the hazards of the river, and you have to sign a waiver, waiving any rights to go after the outfitter if something happens on the river. Now while the Saco river is not a white water river by any stretch of the imagination, there are areas where the river does get a little fast and rocky. Now if I had to sign a waiver to rent a canoe or raft, I would consider that the activity was at least moderately dangerous. This lady had an incident on the river and her son almost fell into the river, and could have possibly drowned. They lady started a letter writing campaign to the local papers as well as politicians that she thought the state or local government should post signs warning that tirps down the river should be considered hazardous. Right about this same time another lady from out of state drowned while she was going out in the lake over her head holding onto the beach markers, it turned out she could not swim. Water is a hazardous medium. Just like the mountains are dangerous. We always seem to have the perennial hiker who goes out on the trails in late fall, and get caught in a snow storm, or slips on rocks and gets hurt. Outdoor life can be dangerous, get over it. If you want to enjoy the mountains and rivers of New Hampshire there are inherent dangers in it and you have to realize the risks.

We had a tornado, or micro burst go through the area on Thursday, and several homes got damaged. One of the houses featured on the news was under construction and the people interviewed stated they did not have insurance on the structure because they did not realize that they needed it on construction without a mortgage. Now they are wondering what they are going to do about their house. I went up to Walmart and heard some people talking about the storm and the poor people who didn't have any insurance, and that the state should pay to rebuild their house. I own a home and I take the responsibility to make sure their is insurance on the house. Yes I feel bad for the people that their house was damaged, but face it they volunteered not to take any insurance out on the house in order to use the money elsewhere. I think we as a people are becoming to dependent on the government to tell us what is safe and what isn't. We need warning labels to tell us what products we shouldn't use. I feel if we really want the government to warn us about all the dangers in life then we should make an edict that all babies born get a tattoo on their forehead just after birth reading "Warning the Surgeon General has determined that being born is the leading cause of death in the United States."

Come on folks get real. The government is not and should not be our baby sitters. We are capable of thinking for ourselves, or at least some of us are. we can make judgments when an activity is going to be dangerous, and then make the decision if we are going to participate in them. An excerpt form my daughter Grace's letter home from camp where they just installed an extreme swing as part of the program. She wrote to us "I went on the swing, all the way to the top, I was so scared I almost peed my pants" now she has made a determination that the activity might not be the activity for her. We all have that ability, to realize when something may not be right for us, we do not need a baby sitter to tell us that we shouldn't do something, or that it may be dangerous with inherent risks. Life itself is dangerous, and we take risks every day we breath.