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Is it right?

Mar 11, 2011 | 10:52 AM

for paNOW

Sometimes people look before they leap, but they have to leap anyway, whether they want to or not.

Sometimes people can abandon all common sense and leap because they just feel like it and who do you think you are, telling them not to do it?

Here are some examples of that. You tell me if you think the actions in these examples are sensible and the right thing to do.

Pretty much the entire world knows there has been political unrest (to put it mildly) in the Middle East for the last few months. Yet, a young male tourist recently went to one of the volatile countries and is astounded that he has been arrested as a spy. Isn’t this a little like wandering into Berlin in 1944 and expecting to explore the Reichstag? Do you think the recent tourist and what happened to him is right, or at least to be expected by any person with any common sense whatsoever?

If Somali pirates can take huge ships and their crews captive, why would someone sail a small but expensive yacht into their waters – with their young daughter along? Why did some other sailboat tourists do the same thing and also get shot? Is their action okay because they didn’t think there would be any trouble?

People who came from Lebanon to Canada to make their home, have dual citizenship. When they return to Lebanon for a holiday, they feel they are Lebanese. When big trouble broke out a few years ago, the Lebanese holiday makers in Lebanon called on Canada to get them out because they were Canadians. Should Canada have paid the whole tab for getting them out of there? Were you okay with your share of a Really Big Bill? Should they have had to pay? Should they have gone in the first place when there was unrest?

Canadians trapped in Libya and wanting to leave, are being rescued by Canada, but they have to pay $500 each – a small but significant part of the total cost. This apparently is because the Canadian — Lebanese didn’t pay and there was a fuss about it.

Some people love their snow machines and really enjoy using them for fun and adventure. Most of them also enjoy life. When a sign in a mountainous area warns of avalanches or says to stay out of this area, why do some people think that doesn’t apply to them? Why do some people toss common sense aside and try driving their snow machines straight up a snowy, wide-open mountain side? Why are they surprised to be caught up in an avalanche? Doesn’t anybody study physics anymore? Would you do these things? Do you think they are pretty brainless sorts of activities?

What is right and what are our rights?

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