on personal responsibility and the Coast Guard
Mood: irritated
Posted on 2012-06-26 09:18:00
Tags: travel essay
Words: 214

(I'm in Dallas today for a Windows 8 thing)

When I woke up this morning, I turned on HLN (nee Headline News) to wake up. They were doing a segment about a woman whose family had to be rescued by the Coast Guard - it looked like they were staying in a beach house on the coast of Florida when Debby hit.

I assume that this sort of thing is in the Coast Guard's mission, and yay for them, but: nowhere in the half of the interview I saw was it implied that maybe the family shouldn't have been, you know, on vacation in a beach house when a freaking Tropical Storm was scheduled to hit. The tone of the interview was oddly light - the interviewer asked the woman how she kept the dogs from running away, and if their vacation had been "ruined".

Being rescued by the Coast Guard should not make for an amusing family story - they (presumably) risked their lives to some extent to save the woman's family because they were stupid or stubborn and put their own lives in danger. It felt like the interviewed glorified their stupidity instead of pointing out that people really should stay out of the way of tropical storms and not stay on the beach. Sheesh!


4 comments

Comment from spamchang:
2012-06-26T13:34:01+00:00

Hopefully they'll get billed for the Coast Guard's time and use of equipment. How people get away with subsidizing their own rescues on federal money is beyond me.

Comment from gregstoll:
2012-06-27T13:34:09+00:00

Agreed.

Comment from flamingophoenix:
2012-06-26T18:09:25+00:00

Yeah, if it's the kind of thing where they tried to get out but couldn't, that's one thing...but if they were just like "Hurricane wheeee!" then fuck that noise, y'know?

Comment from gregstoll:
2012-06-27T13:34:43+00:00

True - I was inferring based on what I heard, since I missed the beginning.

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