Vindauga

I know I should probably just avoid this discussion but this kind of stupidity just annoys me.These two kids died locally and I really don’t have much sympathy for them but I have even less for some of the responses to this event. Don’t misunderstand, I have the deepest sympathies for the parents of these children, it is terrible to lose a child. But don’t try to tell me that these two were saints and prodigies.

Years ago, a girl died in Miami because she was getting high sucking freon off the air conditioner. The body wasn’t found for several days, and only then by the gardner. I’m sorry that the girl had to die, but she was sucking freon off an air conditioner. I mean, she had to crawl through some bushes, find the release valve, lie on the ground, suck a chemical gas out of an functioning machine. This is just dumb.

These two yong adults, were involved in anything nefarious, they weren’t doing lines of cocaine or shooting up herion but sticking your head inside a giant ballon filled with helium is dumb. Drawing off a helium balloon might be fun but anyone who has done it knows that you get light-headed and start to black out if you inhale too much. This isn’t brain surgery, its simple chemistry. Helium, a noble gas, is not something you can breath. Your body needs oxygen. Still, it is a sad thing, sad that two kids died for being dumb.

But what really bugs me is the article and the response. Like, why do I need to know what kind of car they were driving? “after parking the Lexus ES300 Ackerman was driving” might be useful if the story had anythign whatsoever to do with the car but it didn’t. The article claims that the kid lived in the complex, he might not have been driving the car for hours before he decided to bootleg helium off he balloon.

Then there are claims like this “This is not the kind of place where this happens.” Um…no. This is exactly the kind of place where this happens. I submit the evidence of the two dead people as proof. But this claim is really more complex. Consider this claim made by another resident “All upper-class here.” See, the “this is not that kind of place” is really talking about how its apparently only low-class people who do things like take drugs or act dumb. But bored suburbinite children of upper-middle-class families are exactly the group that are most likely to use recreational drugs and do dumb things to try to bring excitement and meaning to their lives.

“It’s very sad that such a tragedy could happen.” Its sad, sure enough. Its terrible, for sure. But its not a tragedy. Its not that the kids died, or even how they died, its that they lived in a society which allowed them to get to the point of dying in the manner that they did. I’m not talking about some paternalist bullshit where we impose curfews or create laws so that people under 21 can’t buy spray paint. I mean that we, as a society, failed these kids by not poviding them with enough guidance or a proper education. A 21 year attending the university that I teach at died because he didn’t know that breathing pure helium will kill him. This frustrates me.

But what really pisses me off is the way this kid is remembered; “Ackerman graduated from Sickles High School and loved Quentin Tarantino movies and watching Inside The Actors Studio. On his Web site, he boasted to his friends of drinking and partying.” He is remembered for loving horribly violent movies and watching a television show. He remembered for loving to drink and party. Are you surprised that a person described like this died because he stuck his head inside a helium balloon?

Several years ago I ran into an old friend who had just come from a funeral. The guy they had buried was described as “a great guy” and “one of the best.” But as the night wore on I began to hear stories about the guy. To be honest he sounded like a perfect jack-ass. He apparently had a need to always be better than you, he always had the latest gadget. If you got something newer, he immediately went out and found something newer. He lived well beyond his means, striving for that Miami rich that appears in every other video. He was a herion addict that died of an overdose while cheating on his wife. But “he was a great guy, he was getting his life back together.” I know I sound like a bastard. Losing your friend is terrible. But don’t make your friend out to be a saint. You lost someone you love, say it. But don’t revise history to try to justify a life. I honestly think you do a disservice to that life by claiming it is something other than what it was. A person lived their life the way they wanted to, don’t change their life to suit the image of the person you wanted them to be.

The mother of the young woman who died is quoted with the most honest and truthful response I have ever seen “I think she was mischievous to be honest with you,” said Linda Rydman, who blotted her eyes with a tissue. “She just liked fun, and I think it cost her.”