Sadly, it seems that every tragedy nowadays sees someone demanding legislation to prevent said tragedy happening again. And sometimes, just every so often, the resultant laws are good ones.
But entirely too often, its a sort of legislative balm for sorrow and grief and very little more. I have been on some of those woodsy little logging roads---and I have to say, I can't see how ANYone could mistake them for a correct route to someplace! Around here, not all of them are gated and locked, but most of them are posted as what they are and in the old Weyerhauser lots the sign bans anyone who doesn't have a permit AND a two-way radio.
A two-way radio certainly would have saved James Kim, and got his family rescued much sooner. While I can imagine the sorrow of Mr. Kim's parents, I don't think making a law is going to change much in this case---it won't bring him back. And people will go places they want to go, even over locked gates. The idea that getting credit card info faster would have made a difference strikes me as severe wishful thinking.
I note a lot of changes in the world since I was a child: no merry-go-rounds on school playgrounds, and almost no 'monkey bars', lots of signs disclaiming responsibility for this or that, more locks everywhere; and I can't say I believe my world is a whole lot safer as a result. It doesn't sound very advanced to say "shit happens" but it does. We really can't legislate safety, no matter how we try.
It does seem like our society can't find a happy medium in anything, doesn't it? We go too far or not far enough. I think our reckless disregard for safety during my childhood was too far in one direction, and our constant vigilance and over-legislation now is skewed the other way.
But entirely too often, its a sort of legislative balm for sorrow and grief and very little more. I have been on some of those woodsy little logging roads---and I have to say, I can't see how ANYone could mistake them for a correct route to someplace! Around here, not all of them are gated and locked, but most of them are posted as what they are and in the old Weyerhauser lots the sign bans anyone who doesn't have a permit AND a two-way radio.
A two-way radio certainly would have saved James Kim, and got his family rescued much sooner. While I can imagine the sorrow of Mr. Kim's parents, I don't think making a law is going to change much in this case---it won't bring him back. And people will go places they want to go, even over locked gates. The idea that getting credit card info faster would have made a difference strikes me as severe wishful thinking.
I note a lot of changes in the world since I was a child: no merry-go-rounds on school playgrounds, and almost no 'monkey bars', lots of signs disclaiming responsibility for this or that, more locks everywhere; and I can't say I believe my world is a whole lot safer as a result. It doesn't sound very advanced to say "shit happens" but it does. We really can't legislate safety, no matter how we try.
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