It had to happen. Laying blame is the ultimate concern. Enough people are blaming the government and specifically the President for the hurricanes. We’ve covered that already. Now we follow a logical conclusion on a smaller issue that lands in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
The exploding bus during the Texas evacuations. “Let’s blame the company, the bus wasn’t registered properly. Let’s blame the driver, we’ll investigate his actions for the previous 72 hours and hope we find something to indicate he was impaired.” Why can’t we just say that shit happened on this one and move on? A chunk of metal in the tires/brakes does not indicate that the driver was high on Sterno. Do the investigation to find answers, not to assign blame. If the company has a record of shoddy maintenance or “rigging” the busses, yes, then blame the company. If the driver was stoned, blame the driver. But so far there has been no indication of either. The worst thing they can come up with is that the bus had an expired registration tag.
So, after the mass media blast from Katrina, everyone is under scrutiny. What would the press have said if during the evacuations the driver said, “Sorry, I can’t help you evacuate elderly people from the path of a devastating hurricane, my tag is expired.” They would have lost their minds! We would have heard about this guy and how uncaring and cold he was. But he loaded up and drove the bus and shit happened. It’s sad and a shame it happened but it did. Sometimes, shit just happens, not every bad event has a malicious “evil-doer” behind it.
I’m assuming this guy was “on the job” and getting paid so no, he’s not qualified for hero status but unless we find out he caused this, neither should he be demonized just because we feel the need to blame someone for the deaths of these old people.
People suck. I’m tired of being lumped in with the rest of these beings. Why can’t some of these people just relax and take it easy? Does every little news story need a bad-guy to blame? Why can’t we as people just see something bad that has no apparent cause and go, “Oh man, that’s a shame”. Do we really need to string someone up for every little offence? Hey, if there is a bad-guy, bring him to light, and this particular case might actually reveal one, but I just think it’s sick the way they are going about it trying to pin it on someone before there is any evidence of fault. Makes me worry for my safety. What happens if I’m in that situation? Do what’s technically correct or do what’s right?
If you want a good read on that, pick up “The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier �vejk During the World War”. Following orders to the letter, no more, no less. Undermining the original intention of the order. Everything can be justified by saying, “Hey, I did just as you told me”. So this driver was supposed to watch people drown because his tag was expired. He could have justified it by saying he was following the letter of the law. And we would have strung him up for it too…
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