The Glade 4.0

How does anyone not know how to swim?

I mean, really.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

It's a fairly high percentage. More or less based on socioeconomic issues, and the location of public pools, etc. At least as I understand it.

federal law (46 U.S.C. §4302) delegates to the Coast Guard the authority to make regulations concerning safety equipment on recreational vessels. The Coast Guard has issued the following regulation (33 CFR 175.15):

Except as provided in Sec. 175.17 and 175.25:

(a) No person may use a recreational vessel unless at least one PFD of the following types is on board for each person:
(1) Type I PFD;
(2) Type II PFD; or
(3) Type III PFD.

(b) No person may use a recreational vessel 16 feet or more in length unless one Type IV PFD is on board in addition to the total number of PFDs required in paragraph (a) of this section.

(c) No person may operate a recreational vessel under way with any child under 13 years old aboard unless each such child is either--
(1) wearing an appropriate PFD approved by the Coast Guard; or
(2) below decks or in an enclosed cabin.

Something akin to 70% of black people don't know how to swim, if I recall the study correctly. Culturally not something important.

Swimming skills can be scarce among African-Americans like the teens in this tragedy. A study commissioned by the sports governing body USA Swimming found 69 percent of black children had low or no swimming ability compared to 41.8 percent of white children. Segregation kept blacks out of public and private pools for decades and the disparity continues because many poor and working class children have limited access to pools or instruction.

The study didn't look into swimming ability based on rural versus urban environments.

The drowning "confirms that what we are finding, that this continuing cycle of people not knowing how to swim and their children not knowing how to swim and still being around water," said Sue Anderson, USA Swimming's Director of Programs and Services. "It's the continuing lack of awareness of how important it is that children learn how to swim."

The federal government says African-Americans drown at a rate 20 percent higher than whites. A lack of access to swimming pools and a lower interest in swimming skills are among the possible explanations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

However, that law doesn't require you to wear the life jacket unless you are under 13.

While I generally agree that there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, that doesn't necessarily make a brave act that ends badly a mistake. It's plenty stupid to go into battle, no matter your training or equipment. It's irrational as hell to put your life at risk for others, no matter the circumstances. And yet, we hold people who make that choice up as heroes (and rightly so, in my opinion).

Generally, we do not hold up as heros people who intentionally commit to battle without proper preparation when they have any other option. It is not, however, stupid to go into battle when you ARE properly prepared.

Similarly, getting yourself drowned because you tried to rescue someone in deep water without any attempt at getting any sort of support is stupid and not laudible in the least.

You're telling me it's smart for an individual to run into a hail of gun and rocket fire, and who knows what else, by choice? Taken out of the context of a war, I'd say that's not the smart thing to do. Don't read that as an attack on soldiers, because it isn't. Bravery is a very noble characteristic in humans, but it's also an irrational one. And that's ok.

Kids trying to rescue kids is brave and laudible, even if they failed. Enough so that I don't think it's appropriate to give them the "You're so stupid we are going to treat your death with great insensitivity" award. At least, that's how I see it.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Anyone willing to lay down their life for another person like these kids gets brownie points for me. Enough, at least, to not disrespect their memory.

19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

Well, I certainly hope that if I am ever in a situation where I'm in mortal peril, someone is willing to be a dumbass to save me.

19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

Well, I certainly hope that if I am ever in a situation where I'm in mortal peril, someone is willing to be a dumbass to save me.

I buy the cultural argument. She flat out told me that swimming wasn't an American Black thing.

Talked about this with a black friend at work. Her take on it is fat black kids know how to float, skinny black kids know how to sink. Swimming is not something she knew how to do until she was in her 30s and her lily-white (her words) roommate dragged her down to the pool to take some swimming lessons and meet someone her roommate thought she might like. Turned out he was her soon to be husband, a black lifeguard a couple years younger than her. They kind of hit it off.

She grew up in Oklahoma, what swimming pools they had were open to everyone, but it wasn't cool if you were black to go there, too many white kids.

I buy the cultural argument. She flat out told me that swimming wasn't an American Black thing.

19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.