I'm sorry............

This isn't going to sound very "Christian" of me especially at this time of the year but I just have to rant. While getting back to health I have been working from home for a while now and I usually have the television on most of the time tuned to the Fox News Channel. One of the main stories that was reported on during the entire day was about the search for some climbers who were stuck somewhere up on Mt. Hood one of the loftier peaks in this great country.

One of their companions has already been discovered having lost his life for his endeavors to reach the summit of this mountain. I am deeply sorry for this man and his friends and family that he has died. If the same fate befalls his companions further up the mountain I will also say a prayer for their families and be saddened by their grief.

What gets me upset is that so many other people will now put their lives and limbs at risk in an effort to go up and save these guys who chose on their own to take on this very hazardous hobby. In my youth I have done some things for the thrill of it which in retrospective were not particularly intelligent and most of them I don't regret. However, when I did these things the only hide I was risking was my own.

I think the fact that we have organized units of rescue personal that are on stand by to go and retrieve these adventures that climb mountains or go deep into caves and suddenly find they are unable to extract themselves from the place that the have gotten into is not only ridiculous but immoral. I think they should add to the adrenalin rush when they start that journey knowing that if they find themselves stuck several thousand feet above the earth in a snow pack that they will either get back on their own or that conditions permitting someone will come in the spring and reclaim their bodies for popper burial.

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem what so ever pulling out all of the stops and doing anything necessary to rescue a lost child or elderly person. A family traveling a well known route that finds themselves stuck by a sudden snow storm or similar circumstances. These however are people who did not deliberately set out to put themselves in harms way. I even understand those that feel that they have to climb the mountain "because its there" and God bless them if they are able to do it. I just don't want to see other people die in the process and to a lesser extent I don't want to pay tax dollars to maintain crews and equipment some of which is very expensive to pull these folks back from the breach when needed.

Like I said not a very kind thought really any time of the year but it is just one of those things that push my buttons especially when it becomes a national news story. That is my 1.835 cents on the matter feel free to comment.