Rant - never again.

No this does not mean I will never rant again. Sorry. Hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up.

No, this is about that line that the media (or others) trot out after every tragedy. "How can we ensure that this never happens again?"

I imagine people tearing their clothing, rubbing ash on their head, rolling in the dirt. Never again, never again, this must never happen again!

Well guess what. As long as humans populate the globe these things WILL happen again. Over and over, again and again and that is life. What I don't understand is why every single tragedy and mishap is a soapbox that some trumpet blaster must mount and blow about. Oh look, a tragedy, now where did I leave my politically correct trumpet?

This is not to say that the suffering of the people involved is not real or painful. But then we have these people who, honest to Gordon, are the biggest brown nosers, brownie point hounds, who start crowing that..'we must never have this happen again'. Oh shut up! Can't we just mourn a bad/sad event and get the hell over it? IS every stinking mishap a cause and crusade? Gordon, I get sick of it! Sick of people who FEAR the reality that LIFE SUCKS sometimes. Sick of the goody two shoes who bleat and bloat over making the world uber safe, they are annoying idiots and sometimes should be punched in the nose.

In the case of gross negligence where someone knew better, had the means to do better, but chose to disregard the safety and care of others in the interest of cutting corners, for THOSE instances we should have a firing squad. Bim, bam, boom, case closed. But where true accidents take place, where people have taken every reasonable precaution and something bad has happened anyway...accept this as part of life, learn what you can and move on. But for the love of Gordon, do not stand there gripping your hat to your chest while you weep, how can we prevent this from ever happening again?

You can't. Get over it. Sorry.

Not everything should be a cause or crusade. ANd when someone starts waving the flag of future and forever tragedy prevention, it often looks like they want to take the focus off the victims and shine it on their own above reproach, wonderful and glowing selves. It's drama hogging. It's cheap and sleazy. It's insulting to the people who ARE the victims.

I listen to the CBC radio when I am working in the kitchen. BUt today when I heard the host ask that question, I wanted to hurl the radio out the window. In fact, I just want to hurl. People who spout fake concern because it buys them public favour pick my assets. Then there are people who put their shoulder to the grindstone and make changes. THOSE people rarely get air time. Not glamorous enough. The world is stupid.  

X2..............dido

I agree!

I think the call of "it must be prevented in future" is a call to take notice and in some cases, to send relief funds. Without that alarm, alarmist message, most of the population wouldn't even notice the message. It's a call to action. It's marketing. That's my thought anyway, without much brain power tonight, but that's my first thought. The average person, in my opinion, is far too busy and has far too much on their plate to notice simple reporting of events. If help or change are needed, they need to be accompanied by a message that will penetrate to miasma of everyday (dreck) life.

A pet peeve of mine also.

We must take action to ensure those statements never happen again!

Fowler wrote:A pet peeve of mine also.

We must take action to ensure those statements never happen again!

 Agreed!

A lot of bleeding hearts have brought us to this point .I can understand a parent who has suffered a loss of a child due to something that could have been made to protect children as wanting something done to insure that another tragedy doesn't happen ,but there have been so many cases where the government steps in and makes a law that we all pay to have enforced and why ? because someone wants to INSURE THAT THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN ( great cash cow opportunity ) ! In a lot of cases a bit of common sense would have gone a long way ?

So let me see if I understand what you are saying. Poopy things do happen, is that correct. If you tell me there is no santa clause I don't know what I will do. Thank god I have seen easter bunnies and leprechauns, and had money under my pillow from the tooth fairy.

Yes, poopy, horrible tragic things happen. When they do we should band together as a family, community or country to help those who need our help. We should respect their loss, their grieving and let them get on with that process. We should aid in any way they need us to.

BUT..when someone leaps up on the soapbox of 'it should never happen again', the focus is taken off the tragedy and put on the crusade, and to me it diminishes the bad event, diminishes the personal suffering, and makes a spectacle that is just that, an artificially constructed spectacle because someone, somewhere, wanted to he a hero. Oh look at ME, focus on ME ,aren't I a shining light of righteous indignation in all this badness? I will make the world a better place by banging on the door of government and bleating, THIS MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

I think collectively society has decided to never grow up, to remain perpetual children with the idea that Santa and the tooth fairy will flit in and make every lost tooth a pay off. Or make every bad Christmas gift a preventable tragedy. Well it just ain't so and it never will be and part of being human on this planet is getting down in the painful dirt and helping each other when tragedy does strike. And it does. All the time. And to help you have to get your hands dirty and get close to the pain. That ass up on the soapbox is not helping, he is not involved, he is removed and crowing for admiration and attention. He's just an ass on a soapbox.

I am singing your song. However, as I get older, I think I am going to need the tooth fairy to visit, can I at least have that. A little something under the pillow.

Well Uno I have to say I disagree with you. Without some asshat bleating from a soap box, would we be able to have legal abortions? Would the Amber Alert system be around and so widely recognized? Who would be served if the parents of an abducted child were 'allowed to grieve in peace and privacy'?? Would bullying in schools be recieving any attention? How about elder abuse.

Sorry. I just don't agree with you. Sometimes that box has to be bleated from.

I'm not saying we should not lobby for a cause.

I am saying we should not take every tragedy, which is just that, and pretend that we can make the world a tragedy-free zone. There are people who cannot sleep in their beds at night unless they think every unforeseen eventuality has been sewn up by the government. Well the government isn't god, and if you notice, god himself has abandoned the cause of making the world tragedy free.

It is one thing to get on the bandwagon to help oppressed people. It is something altogether different to make every accident and unfortunate mishap a crusade. Not everything bad can be avoided and perhaps we think of ourselves as far too holy when we think we CAN avert every accident.

Extreme politically correct 'safety', the mother of all causes, the chains and restrictions that 'keep us safe' will also drag us to the bottom with the weight and restriction of it all. Nothing is free. I think media grand standing is pointless and sickening. FarmChiq, what you are talking about, I view as a different topic, because in many instances, I AM a crusader for betterment. But many people who in reality would sacrifice NOTHING of themselves or their own freedoms for the benefit of others, are the first to crow 'never again' because it gives the gloss and gleam of caring, without any effort being exerted. It's a cheap move in the light of true tragedy.