Common Sense

Readers,
I'm all for personal responsibility; in fact, I'm a firm believer in it, no matter how much I enjoy feeling sorry for myself. But self-pity and legal waivers aside, common sense must come into play sometime. If I'm a trained guide on a hardcore hiking trail encouraging military-style survival testing, with non-military paying guinea pigs, I'd like to keep my customers alive, wouldn't you?

Dave Buschow, a 29-year old who went to a survivalist school to test himself, is now dead. Why? Because he ended up talking to himself and seeing things (in other words, he was delusional) due to lack of water, and no one helped him (including the other hikers, just FYI). The school has blamed him rather than saying that their "trained" guides, who had emergency water on hand, should have helped the poor S.O.B. Shouldn't all that training for their guides have included signs of recognizing plain-and-simple distress? I know the point of the school was to push one's self, but what if a person, even a tough one who's a bit out of shape, just couldn't hack it? Nothing against Mr. Buschow, who had served in the military, but even Survivor has its limits. What you don't see on Survivor are divers and nutritionists and doctors and teams ready to rescue/aid someone who rolls into a fire or might be threatened by a shark or gets a paper cut or who just plain starts starving to death.

Even a former military person who's been trained doesn't always see what's happening to him/her, especially when that person wants to feel the testosterone or reach the summit or be pushed to the limit or save face. The point is, exactly BECAUSE of those feelings, the job of the drill sergeant or trail guide or dive master or team leader is to evaluate his/her team and followers.

The guides on this hike failed miserably in evaluating this man's fitness and physical state, and they can blame it on him for eating a buffet the day before, or say that it's his fault for not speaking up, or postulate that a former military man should have know better. The real point is that THEY should have known better. That was their job. And now a man is dead. Please quit blaming the deceased. That's like saying a woman wearing a short skirt and low-cut blouse brought rape upon herself. Bullshit.

He may have signed the waivers, and maybe he should have known better, but he trusted his own strength and trusted his guides to evaluate and examine that strength. His strength failed him and so did those guides. Do they deserve the death penalty, so to speak? Hell no. Do they deserve to suffer for their lack of observation? Yes, but I have a feeling they'll be beating themselves up for quite a long time without my help (along with the other hikers who thought about speaking up but did not). Does the company deserve to be sued? Yes; obviously, they didn't train their guides like they should have. Does Mr. Buschow deserve some blame? Yes, but only for believing his body still functions like it did 10 years ago, a normal human, especially male, response, to ignoring changes in strength and stamina; and even back when he was younger, he had a trained military drill instructor who kept an eye out for his welfare no matter how hard he/she pushed the young man. After all, part of a drill instructor's job is not only looking out for those who can't handle it personally or psychologically but who also check for those who are in physical distress through no fault of their own. That's their JOB. Which is my point about these negligent guides. The company treated this like extreme training, which implies a military style, which implies that their guides should have treated their hikers as tough as possible, but with the same eye to looking for physical, psychological, and personal distress. There is no excuse.

Sunny