Posted on 02/25/2019 2:55:46 PM PST by Simon Green
A California woman was killed on Sunday while on a closed trail in Yosemite National Park, according to officials.
Xuan Wang, a 56-year-old woman who lived in Cupertino, was on the Mist Trail around 12:30 p.m. when she was "struck by falling rock and ice," the National Park Service stated in a news release on Monday.
Wang later died from her injuries.
The park agency said that the Mist Trail where Wang was killed is closed during this time of the year because of "icy and hazardous conditions," and that the area is noted as such.
"The trail closure is clearly marked and there is a gate on the trail reminding visitors of the closure. Wang ignored the signs, went around the gate and the incident happened on the trail leading to Vernal Fall," officials said.
The park service said officials are investigating the incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
There’s a book called “Off the Wall: Death at Yosemite” that’s basically a catalog of everyone who ever died of other than natural causes in the park. One of the big takeaways is that the deaths are overwhelmingly males between 18 and 25 doing stupid things.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Don’t forget Dante’s Peak in Washington state and Mount Wilshire in Los Angeles.
We live not too far from Yellowstone park and we have problems specifically with Chinese tourists coming onto our ranch to see what’s here and to take pictures of large, angry, bull bison that I won’t approach unless I’m wrapped in a truck.
They get killed with amazing regularity around here (and not just in the park) because they ignore fences, gates, posted warnings, and etc. and then they act all dumb and innocent when they get caught.
Are we concerned? Yes, we are. That’s why we take care to patrol our well-posted fenceline to keep our herd of large, angry bison contained. But we can’t be out there every single day to stop stupid people from trying to kill themselves.
So we do our part but when the stupid people go out of their way to put themselves, their families, and first responders in danger then all I can say is, “Oh, well.”
If you don’t like that then you should probably avoid coming to Wyoming. Don’t get me wrong, if you break down on the road or have an accident the people around here will stop at nothing to help you out. But if you ignore the big signs that say DANGER and then get yourself killed by the danger then these same people will just shrug because we’ve seen so much damned stupidity that we just don’t have it in us to get concerned about the stupid people anymore.
Megan
Oh, and here’s another example of the Chinese and their bizarre penchant for harming themselves and others:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3730696/posts
No, none of it’s working.
If a person dies like that and you make fun of them, degrading them for your own pleasure, you’re living on a hair string. I won’t say you’re totally lost because there is a way up until the last breath.
If you don’t make fun but still have no compassion for the person who dies like that, you’ve got some heavy thinking to do.
The first step is to recognize, then rebuke, the spirit of cruelty. It’s the opposite of the spirit of compassion. Where does that place it?
Not here it isn’t. Check your own eye, brother. And check the spirit in this thread.
I refuse to tolerate the devaluing of life.
Where did I make fun of that person? Tell me please. Copy and paste from my post.
Where did you get the idea that I have no compassion? Where?
Copy and paste from my post and make your point.
Otherwise, admit you have painted me with a broad brush unfairly and I will leave it at that.
Please make your point.
On the contrary; I try to avoid dangerous areas and situations when ever practicable.
When I have to go into such situations or areas, I make sure I have all the equipment and supplies necessary to mitigate the risks as much as possible, that’s probably why I am still alive at my age.
I don’t do STUPID things just because I can, or there is nobody there to stop me.
This woman did a STUPID thing and payed the price, I have a great deal of sympathy for her family and their loss, but absolutely NONE FOR HER.
STUPID SHOULD hurt or be lethal, it was in the past of the human race, and it should be for all time.
It’s GOD’S way of improving the quality of humanity.
Good one!!
I don’t speak against you, or against any other person. I speak against spirit, the spirit of cruelty.
And every other unjust and unwise spirit. God doesn’t “improve humanity.” He saves humanity from our own sins.
If I wrongly included you, I apologize. It could be that I wasn’t paying enough attention.
I accept that. Thank you. I really dislike disagreements like this with my fellow Freepers, I appreciate that.
On many FR threads, there is usually someone that seems to know what others should feel, think or do. If you argue with this troll it just makes them happy, and you end up smelling like a troll.
They are not interested in your situation, views, opinions, etc. They simply seek to screech and rant about your post, your grammar, your spelling, i.e. YOU.
I wish them the best...
Yup.
Don’t punch that thar tar baby.
In Canyonlands National Park, Utah, there’s an arch on top of a cliff where you can get a great view of the scenery off to the east and if you’re brave you can get fairly close to the top of a sheer drop of about 1500 feet. Or if you’re nuts you can clamber around on top of this arch and take selfies. This is what we saw when we visited it around Easter 2015. I was seriously afraid for the safety of a couple of young men, if they had looked down and gotten vertigo, they could have fallen to their deaths.
Meanwhile, at Mount Washington NH, at the base of the four mile hiking trail to the summit, there’s a display showing how 120 people met their demise over the last century. Almost every one of them was hiking in late November or early spring, and no doubt ran into a mountain blizzard. But there’s ten feet of snow up there in the winter and it has a reputation for being the windiest place in the country, so you know, how can that really be an “accident?”
I have had discourse many times over the years with reasonisfaith, and never had this kind of interaction.
I cannot speak for reasonisfaith (and I could be out of line even speculating) but I have never, ever viewed reasonisfaith as a troll. It seemed out of character to me, but like a lot of us here, I made the assumption that reasonisfaith is angry, as I am, about the state and progression of certain issues and situations.
Believe me, sometimes it is a daily struggle to me to stay civil, but I do try. With the unbelievably horrible abortion policies that we see defining us as a nation (and the Left defiantly taking pride in it) to the public scourging of President Trump by people who have perverted the instruments of power, but instead of being called to task by the cowardly Republicans, are instead basking in the power of the majority and using it as a cudgel.
So, yeah. I am having struggles, as we used to say in the Navy, to “Keep a steady strain”.
And to be fair: I understand why reasonisfaith takes issue with ridiculing people who die tragically in situations that are “Darwinian”. I myself have gently reprimanded fellow Freepers with the less inflammatory (in my opinion) admonition: “Yes, this person did contribute to their own death, but keep in mind how it would feel to family and friends if they were to stumble across this and read these comments.”
So in that sense, I would not have approached it the way reasonisfaith did, but I understand the underlying reason reasonisfaith responded, even if I took umbrage with it.
For my part, I have always felt that in cases like this where someone does something stupid, I can view them in the same way I view victims of an opioid overdose. I can feel compassion for the victim and his or her family, but that in no way removes what I see as a self-inflicted contribution towards their own demise.
I believe in personal responsibility, and this person abdicated that responsibility, as addicts do the first time they stick a needle in their arm for recreational use. It doesn’t necessarily make them bad or evil. It does make them weak and fallible, and we need to keep in mind, we are all in various ways, weak and fallible.
As for this case, I was angry about it and got my dander up, when perhaps I should have taken a deep breath and stepped away from the keyboard.
Good advice for all of us.
I have always taken issue with people who get themselves in a tight spot because they went out climbing or hiking and either took on something they weren’t prepared or skilled enough for, or didn’t foresee weather conditions when they should have, and end up having to be rescued.
Especially mountain climbers. They should bear the cost of their rescue, because they SHOULD be prepared. Hikers can just be ignorant or unprepared people, but climbers should have their act together.
I am undecided with sailors who get in trouble, because even the best and most prepared sailors have had conditions go south on them on the ocean. It can be an unforgiving environment.
Simply noting that some people have a death wish is not making fun of them it’s simply noting that some people have a death wish.
And stupid people come in all forms.
They think it’s safe to hike on the Iraq-Iran border.
They think they have a right to antagonize a dictator like Maduro.
They provoke wild animals.
They cross safety barriers.
They cuddle up with wild grizzly bears.
They pick fights with Trump supporters.
They vote for socialism.
They eat wild mushrooms without knowing what they’re really eating.
They do all manner of stupid, dangerous things and they predictably die for their trouble.
I’m not going to make fun of these people but neither will I mourn them when they die because of their own foolishness.
Proverbs 13:16 “In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.”
The distance between
1. Attributing consequences to choices
and
2. Celebrating a person’s accidental death
is indescribably vast.
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