Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The OP must be the smartest, most rational, best behaved person on the planet . . . never had bad judgment, even as a teen, never made a mistake . . . wow . . .
Compassion is a virtue and it doesn't cost you anything.
Sympathy for her? She made a decision that she likely knew was not a good one, and it killed her. Bad decisions and drug people are synonymous, as far as I'm concerned. I have a hard time sympathizing.
I can sympathize with people who got a 2AM phone call, though. When the phone rings at an unusual hour, it's never a good thing.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,068,476 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ro2113
The only people I don't have sympathy for when they die are those who willingly and maliciously do wrong to others. Rapists, child molesters and murderers get no sympathy from me. But people who take hardcore drugs like this girl I believe already feel like crap to begin with and have severe issues with self acceptance and self confidence which is why I feel no need to say "good riddance" or anything like that because it really doesn't do no good. These are people who had demons that they simply couldn't overcome in life. For them death was probably a release.
I think it's a bit of a cop-out. Most people, believe it or not, take drugs for the thrill of it and peer pressure. I feel sympathy maybe because of this society which glorifies drug use.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,068,476 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by purehuman
I could possibly agree with you if you were talking adults here, but we're talking a young teen, she made a mistake, she paid with her life, she could not be expected to have the same cognizance as an adult, and therefore she most certainly did NOT deserve to die....
If the question was ecstasy. So if she was 21, you would feel a lot less sympathy for her?
In both cases neither EXPECTED that ecstasy could be so risky, I mean it's not quite heroin, but it's not like smoking weed either. Any old chemical substance you buy off the street is gonna be risky, especially not knowing what exactly goes into it. It's kind of a pity that more kids aren't educated and aren't caught up in this hedonistic need to get high on something.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,068,476 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by 43north87west
Sympathy for her? She made a decision that she likely knew was not a good one, and it killed her. Bad decisions and drug people are synonymous, as far as I'm concerned. I have a hard time sympathizing.
I can sympathize with people who got a 2AM phone call, though. When the phone rings at an unusual hour, it's never a good thing.
Maybe it's a bit unsympathetic of me, but it annoys me that whenever someone dies they always say what a great kid he/she was, how they were such an angel. It's the whole attitude that she was cruelly 'taken' that annoys me a bit. At the end of the day she took a risk and paid with her life. It's a tragedy. In the case of taking an OVERDOSE, she wasn't the victim at all. The victim of her own whatever, maybe.
I could possibly agree with you if you were talking adults here, but we're talking a young teen, she made a mistake, she paid with her life, she could not be expected to have the same cognizance as an adult, and therefore she most certainly did NOT deserve to die....
So...15 year olds are old enough and mature enough to be left alone or go out unsupervised with friends, but not old enough or mature enough to make decisions like, "Should I do something completely illegal that I have been told not to do 100 billion times?"
How dumb do you think 15 year-olds are?
That is ONE YEAR away from driving.
From being responsible for THOUSANDS of other people's lives.
I could possibly agree with you if you were talking adults here, but we're talking a young teen, she made a mistake, she paid with her life, she could not be expected to have the same cognizance as an adult, and therefore she most certainly did NOT deserve to die....
By the time one is a "teen", meaning 13 years old, they have all heard everything that anyone needs to know about how awful drugs are. It's only gotten more and more prevalent as time has gone on, and I remember going through a whole thing in 4th grade back in 1990 about how terrible it was to smoke, drink, and do drugs. (This was in a public school, by the way.)
Whenever anyone whose age includes "teen" takes drugs, he/she knows exactly what he/she is doing. I will never believe that someone can reach age 13 not knowing diddly-squat about how bad drugs are. If the person is peer-pressured into it, then he/she has chosen to disregard all of the elementary-school teaching we all got about avoiding peer pressure. NOBODY reaches the teenage years without knowing this stuff. Therefore, the "doesn't have the same cognizance as an adult" reasoning doesn't work. It doesn't take a huge amount of brain power to recall the message that everyone hears for many years starting from when they're really young: DRUGS ARE BAD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
What a lovely, Christ-like attitude (said because this poster is allegedly a devout "Christian").
Let me guess - you're going to vote for Obama in about a month and a half. (If you know so little about Christianity as to assume that Jesus never got mad, nor told people they would get what was coming to them, then I'd bet you believe Obama is a devout Christian too. )
Recall how Jesus threw the merchants out of the temple. He called people out for being hypocrites numerous times. He even called one of His disciples "Satan" when said person was playing into Satan's hands. Jesus wasn't the warm, fuzzy guy that many churches paint Him out to seem. Open your Bible, read the red words in the Gospels, and see just what Jesus was all about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
I too, like Pikantari and a few others, am sad that so many are saying basically that the kid deserved what she got. Was it stupid to take drugs? Yes, of course. Do teenagers do stupid things? All the time. I don't know ANY teenager who was perfect all the time, who never gave in to peer pressure, who never disobeyed his or her parents, etc. I was pretty straight-laced as a teenager but I too did some stupid stuff.
Very sad for the kid who never got a chance to grow up, AND for her parents.
We've all done stupid stuff but there's a difference between things like disrupting class by popping gum-wrapper missiles into the air (guilty) and taking drugs. There's a difference between trying to hide a bad midterm report from one's parents (guilty) and taking drugs. Consider the severity of the actions. When I got busted for the little dumb things I did, I got punishments that were comparatively little when measured against DEATH. But my transgressions were comparatively little when measured against TAKING DRUGS!
When the message is "if you take drugs, you die" and you die, well, looks like the truth was being told. Jesus made no bones about the fact that "no one comes to the Father but through me", through that (and other statements) saying that if you do not accept Him and live as God would have you live, you are going to Hell. So, if you don't do that, and you go to Hell... does that make Jesus uncompassionate, un-Christian-like, etc?
No, it makes Him a truth teller.
I grant that the circumstances which would bring a person to believe that taking drugs is an okay / beneficial thing to do are often not that person's fault. But even if the circumstances are not favorable, the person still has a choice: be strong, or give in to what he/she knows is wrong. If he/she chooses the latter, the punishment is always earned regardless of how severe it is.
And to say so is not anti-Christian. Actually, it is some of the most Christian (Biblical) stuff there is.
It breaks my heart. I always wonder how did they start with drugs to begin with? What lead them down that path of self destruction? I know how hard it was to kick my Pepsi habit, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to try and kick a drug habit.
Last month my husband ended up in the ER. The bed along side us was occupied by a young girl (early 20s) who had overdosed on heroin. I give the EMTs, nurses and MDs credit because they didn't judge her. They only wished and hoped for the best for her, but sadly they're all well too aware of what her future holds. Her parents arrived and my heart went out to them. I know damn well that that young girl doesn't want to be an addict and I know damn well that's not where her parents imagined where her life would take her.
My husband's ex-wife passed away last month at the age of 45 from an aggressive form of lung cancer due to smoking. Does she deserve less sympathy because of the choice she made to smoke?
My husband's ex-wife passed away last month at the age of 45 from an aggressive form of lung cancer due to smoking. Does she deserve less sympathy because of the choice she made to smoke?
I don't think anyone does or doesn't deserve more or less sympathy as if there was a right or wrong way or right or wrong answer on whether you should feel sorry for someone.
But a smoker dies of cancer vs a 2 year old dies of cancer?
Yeah. Not even the same universe. Not for me. Sad all around. But someone purposefully inflicting harm on themselves and then paying the consequences vs a little child who knows nothing of the world but pain and fear...not the same league at all.
I have a lot of sympathy. I can remember doing some pretty stupid and reckless things as a teenager. Most of us do but most of us also come out unscathed with nothing but a crazy story to tell for the rest of our lives whether it's about drugs, a stupid risk we took, a dangerous situation we got ourselves into, etc. A few unfortunates don't live to tell the tale, that's all.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
