Posted on 06/27/2010 8:02:21 PM PDT by LibWhacker
SAINT-DENIS, Reunion -- Sixteen-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland is homeward bound - though her plane flight back to California isn't the homecoming she originally imagined when she set off in hopes of sailing around the world.
About two weeks after her rescue at sea, Sunderland departed Sunday from the French island of Reunion, off the southeastern coast of Africa, en route to France, then on to California.
(Excerpt) Read more at fwix.com ...
Zac Sunderland makes money by giving lectures about his sailing/adventures. That’s actually legitimate work, but not the kind of work that makes you rich - and unless you do new stuff, the market runs dry.
“And the photos posted of kids snacking out etc. are in no wise a comparison and little to do with the issues at hand”...
Apparently someone thinks that all children in the USA overeat and and watch TV all day. What an insult to our children and grandchildren.
There are millions of kids who are leaders in school and in their communities...who don’t ask for donations from others to fulfill their dreams. They actually work for what they want. Those are the ones I admire.
I saw that...I noticed one reader encouraging him to go to college...that he won’t make money all his life talking about a 17 year old’s sailing journey. lol
I retract my prior response.
This has not been my finest hour on FR and I think we both have some validity to our thoughts.
Certainly we want our children to push out and take the world on. And with gusto and vigor!
The question of the when and to what degree floats between individual and societal levels.
Forgive me if I was overreaching in my pegging the “spot” in that continuum.
The whole affair was and remains a complete disregard for the childs safety from the start.
Bravo!
ML/NJ
I am surprised this adventure has gotten the attention of so many here. I think we can agree we are all happy the girl did not die.
It seems the discussion has morphed into how people rear their children, some are over protective, some very lax...that is the way it should be. Unless some parent’s actions directly affect someoneelses life or property, it should not be a cause for concern. I don’t want the state rearing my children and I don’t want my neighbor directing me either.
... and that it is now NORMAL for queer men to like boys...!
Hurray for this family and their desire for excellence. Some people can't afford the best, but try any way!
It's a shame that there are a bunch of naysayer's on this board who never made it past the second block from their home! At 13, I hitched to Florida after a spat with my folks. I spent a week at the beach and hitched back home. They were glad to see me return... and nobody looked at me twice, while I was there!
I'm almost 63 now, and just returned from Burkina Faso, in west Africa. I will be heading to Shanghai in August for the Expo and for business opportunities. I prefer dealing with capitalists!
How about giving your 16 year old daughter a ticket to Europe and saying "see you in 8 months"......
I'm not sure you're right about this. Though I'm not a sailor and so all those who did sponsor her first trip got no value from exposing their names to me, I did see them nearly every day for however many months Abby was underway. If she makes another similar effort, I would probably follow it again and maybe more people would look in because of he notoriety she achieved from this failed effort and rescue. Maybe she could even get some Corn Chip maker to sponsor her?
ML/NJ
School’s out for the summer and you would hardly know kids exist. It is rare to see them outside anymore. I see a lot of empty baseball fields. The only kids at the park are brought there in large day care group herds.
When I was a kid, the only time we were inside was when we got hungry, then it was back outside.
We did some crazy things and lived through them somehow. A lot of kids today have no real life.
Couldn't you say the same of Payton Manning? Isn't the Miller Brewing Company et al. effectively paying for him to play a schoolboys' game?
ML/NJ
I gave my 11 year-old daughter a ticket to Europe (Germany, actually) and told her I would see her in three weeks. Does that count? To be sure, she was going to visit and stay with an aunt, but she went by herself; and she went confidently. She had been making similar solo trips to Florida (from NYC) since she was seven years old. Kids have a way of letting you know that they're ready.
ML/NJ
Same for me, except sometimes the weather was really bad and then we all showed up at one guy's house and played Bridge.
ML/NJ
Why was she there two weeks? Was her health more impacted by all this than originally reported?
Who paid for his trip?
“we’ll all go back to finding our heroes from the ranks of rappers and coked up ball players whose mamas can’t spell.”
I choose the anonymous folks that perform the dangerous search and rescue efforts on behalf of people that simply want media attention but are ill prepared for the actual conditions that they’ll face.
But hey, you can choose your heroes as you wish.
Pardon me for jumping in here, but porter_knorr, you seem unable to live in a world where someone seems, in your view, “unable to wish this girl well.”
Seems to me you’ve said your peace. Don’t know why you’d keep coming back at someone, repeatedly jawboning that they didn’t agree with you on the meaning of humanity or whatever.
As you said, “that just seems wierd to me, but your choice.” And please be advised that I will only post on this point this one time.
Thank you.
I’ve still got mixed emotions about parents letting a young daughter
do a round-the-world voyage in a world with more than enough pirates/raiders.
But I did appreciate the young lady thanking the French crew that
did come out to get her safely home.
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