Chance, Choice and Tragedy
Please look back over the article I asked you to find over the weekend on a person who has experienced a tragedy.
First, please offer a brief summary of your article (3-5 sentences).
Second, comment on whether or not you think this person had control over this tragedy--did this happen by choice or by chance? Explain your thinking.
Third, please read over the comments on this post and respond to the following question: Which is the greater tragedy--one that happens because of a bad choice, or the one that happens by random chance? Explain your thinking.
First, please offer a brief summary of your article (3-5 sentences).
Second, comment on whether or not you think this person had control over this tragedy--did this happen by choice or by chance? Explain your thinking.
Third, please read over the comments on this post and respond to the following question: Which is the greater tragedy--one that happens because of a bad choice, or the one that happens by random chance? Explain your thinking.
posted by Kristin L at 8:11 AM
20 Comments:
The article I chose was about a terrible house fire in which a boy lost his life.
One morning a family was struck by a devistating house fire which entirely destroyed their home and their little two year old boy. The mother was walking out of the house with her four children in tow and then outside she realized that her two year old son was not with them. She ran back into the house but to no avail only to badly burn her face.
This tragedy was completely by chance as far as we know, there is no way that a family could prepare for a house fire.
the greater tragedy is always the one in which everything for you is by chance. Even if it is someone elses actions affecting you, you have no say in what they do.
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The article I chose was a small tragedy, but it the end it turned out to be a blessing. There was a family years ago in Scotland that were saving up money to go on a trip to America. They saved up for several months, only to have their son bit by a dog two days before the trip. The boy could not leave the country for fear or rabies. So, they missed their boat to America, and the father was furious. Only a few days later the ship, the Titanic, sunk.
This tragedy was both chance and choice. If they boy hadn't decided to play near a wild dog, he probably would have been fine; but then again the dog happened to be near a boy whose family was about to board the ship Titanic.
Choice and chance that end in a tragedy are equally bad. If you do something and a bad consequence follows, then it makes you feel even worse, causing your own grief. But if it by chance, you had no say in what happened, and it can feel very unfair and hurtful.
The article I chose was about a mother who lost both of her sons to impaired drivers, on different instances. The first son's name was Scotty and he was 14 when he died. His community service truck was hit by a drunk/drugged driver and all 6 teens inside were killed. After the tragedy the mother became closer with her son that lived in California with her ex husband and often flew him out to Arizona to spend time with her. One day coming back from camping with his friends, the driver of their truck was on drugs and smashed into a tree. The mothers other son was killed (the only one in the accident killed). He was 19.
This series of events were completely by chance. It’s horrible that this woman has had to go through this but there was no way she could have prevented it. The one thing she could have prevented was the events that took place after. The article reported that she and her husband lost their jobs after the second death, in a result from taking too much time off of work. They are also in serious finical trouble. She did have control over those events though.
I think that the worst feeling is when a tragedy happens and you caused it because you feel like it’s always your fault. You start thinking how you could have fixed it or prevented it, and often times that ends up driving people crazy.
The article I choose was about Darrent Williams and how he was killed. Darrent Williams was in a limo with a group of adults when the limo became victim of a drive by shooting. Darrent Williams was shot in the neck and would later be pronounced dead in the wee hours of January 1, 2007. Just hours after hearing the news Bronco fans and players arrived at the Bronco training facility to drop of flowers and just to talk to other about what had just happened.
From rumors Darrent Williams had an unexpected encounter with some who are said to be gang members just before his limo was shot at. If the rumor is true about the man that police think shot Darrent was a gang leader. I believe that Darrent’s tragedy had to do a little with a bad choice. But also had a little control in not to be getting into arguments with gang members. But Darrent might not have known that that man was in a gang so it is also a tragedy of chance.
I think that tragedy of bad choice and tragedy of chance are just as terrible as the other. No matter what you say the outcome is always going to be painful for all involved. So in my opinion there is no tragedy that is worse than the other.
The article I chose was about the terrible school bus-train accident in Greeley on December 14, 1961. 20 children were killed in the accident, and 16 other children survived. The bus was hit by a Union Pacific train that was behind schedule. The driver was not able to see the train or hear it because of a sharp angle at the crossing and because of frost on the windows. The bus only had 63 inches to go until it had crossed over the railroad tracks.
This tragedy was by decision. If the train conducter had not fallen behind schedule and had decided to leave earlier to be on time. If the students on the bus had decided to sit elsewhere, it would have determined who would survive and who wouldn't. If the people who had constructed the train tracks had decided for it not to be such a sharp angle. If the bus driver had decided to wait a few more minutes to see if there was a train coming or not. This whole tragedy caused by decision.
The tragedy that happens by chance is the worst. If a tragedy occurs by decision or by choice, people can avoid the tragedy from occurring again by making changes. But by chance, you never know if it will happen again, and there is no way to prepare for it again or for other tragedies that occur by chance.
I read about a bombing at a girls' school in Baghdad. Five were killed and twenty were injured. They were the victims of an attempted assasination of Shiite pilgrims and clerics. Four were killed instantly and one later suffered and died. The whole area was a mess of glass and blood.
I think these people did not have control over this happening. These school girls just wanted to learn. Also, I do not think they could have really stopped who ever did this because it was not even supposed to kill them; it was supposed to kill these Shiite pilgrims.
Like most everyone else has said, I think that both tragedies are just as bad. For the one resulting from a bad choice, that person has to live with the guilt and will continue to wonder what might have been had they made a different decision. When an event happens randomly, such as death, it's very hard to let go. When someone who is a good person dies, it does not seem fair that they died. It makes you wonder why God did not stop them from dying. It is a very hard question to answer, and it is hard to move on from that kind of loss.
I chose an artical about a father's attempt to save his family. James Kim and his family tried to get home in California after Thanksgiving in Oregon. They took a back way and got stuck in a storm. After nine days, he decided to go look for help while his wife and two young kids stayed back. They found his body a few days later and the rest of the family was saved.
I think that it was a decision to go and find help, and that decision lead to his death. It was a chance thought to get stuck in a snow storm with no one around. I dont know if he made the right decision, but he did what he thought was good for his family which to me is honorable.
I think that a greater tragity is from a chance rather than a bad choice. If you were making a bad choice, there is a chance that it might not turn our well, but a chance is no prediction which has a shock that comes along with the tragity.
The article I read was about a 15-year old boy who drowned. He was riding his bike along a pathway near a river when he hit a pothole and was thrown from the bike into the water. The current of the river was too strong for the boy to survive, and his body was found a couple days later.
I do not think the boy in this article had control over the way he died. Despite the fact that he chose to ride his bike, he did not choose to hit a pothole and certainly did not choose to go into the water. I think the accident was by chance.
I think that a tragedy is a tragedy and whether it is by choice or chance does not matter. Either way, someone gets hurt in the end.
The article I found was about an 8-week old baby named Anthony James Mingione who died with an unknown cause. Later they found in the autopsy he had a rare genetic disorder known as the "bubble boy disease". This is were your body does not have an immune system The article talks about the disease and his tragedy.
This infant to me had not one bit of control over what happened, this just happened by chance. The child did not make any decisions and did not want this to happen. He had no control and this was complete chance.
After reading the other comments i think that a greater tragedy comes when it happens because of a bad choice. When this happens by chance you know that you could have done nothing to prevent it. When a tragedy occurs because of a bad choice it seems like you always are thinking of just how you could have prevented it and maybe it would not have happened if you had just changed one little thing, some blame themselves.
-My article was about the death of Princess Diana. She was kilied when her car smashed into the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in France. Her lover and her driver were also killed. The driver was drunk when he wrecked the car, and was later accused of murder. Those charges were later dropped.
-In my opinion Diana's accident was moslty out of her control. She was not driving and had no idea the driver was going to wreck the car. On the other hand she should not have gotten in the car if she knew that the driver was drunk. But she may not have known, so once again I beleive the tragedy was out of her hands.
-I think that a tragic chance is more of a tragedy than a choice because if you make the choice at least you usually know what you're doing. When it is by chance(murder) then you wouldn't know what was coming, you may not be ready.
I did the tragedy of a singer named Brandy who got in a car crash and killed someone. She now might be charged with man slaughter. This happened in December and so far she has been all over the news.
This happened my chance and control at the same time. If the two drivers had been paying more attention then most likely everything would be fine right now. This also is by chance because it just happened to be a famous person that got in a crash.
I think the worse tragedy would be one that you were in control of and it was your fault. Everyday you would have to live with knowing none of this could have happened if you would have stopped it.
I found an article about an explosion at a gas station. There was a leak in a tank that held anywhere from 750 to 1,000 gallons of gasoline. As people were being evacuated from the area once they found out about the leak, the tank exploded killing at least four people, and critically injuring at least 2 more.
This kind of thing is uncontrollable, it seemed that everyone did what they could to try and prevent death or injury before it exploded. It's a matter of chance that there was a leak in the tank, and an unfortunate chance that it happened to explode.
A random chance is a greater tragedy because there is no control over whether or not it happens. If someone makes a bad decision, they leave a lot of blame to be placed on them, however if theres just a random unavoidable accident, nobody involved necessarily deserved it.
My article was about the Darrent Williams murder. He was in a limo and there were three other people inside of it including Williams. A car pulled up next to the limo and shot a gun inside the limo. Williams was shot and rushed to the hospital. The police said that the shooting happened because of an alteration at a nightclub earlier that night.
I’m not really sure, it could be both. If there were an alteration at that nightclub then it would have happened by choice. But if there weren’t then I would be by chance.
I think that tragedies by chance and by choice are bad. Because if the tragedy results in death there is nothing you can do to bring them back and revenge wont do anything but get you into more trouble. I think chance isn’t really anyone’s fault, it just happens, but choice it was that persons personal choice and you can’t do anything about it.
MY article involved Lance Armstrong and his struggle and triumph over cancer.
Lance did not choose to have this caner. This was placed upon him, and Lance won the battle and won 7 consecutive tour de frances after. The tragedy in which occured due to ones action, can be learned from and expected in the future. The tragedy in which happens from a myriad of events not including the chocies made by someone, are the hardest to get through, and the hardest to learn from.
Like Molly, my story was about the horrible train on school bus collision of 1961. It was a horrible tragedy and I won't restate that facts that Molly already said. I will say however that I read an article about three brothers who were all involved in the crash, two were seriously injured and one was killed.
I agree with Molly that part of this tragedy happened by decision. However, I disagree with what she said about it being all by decision (don't be mad, I thought you did a really good job this is just my opinion). I think that its unfair to break some of it down that far because if you think really tiny, I'm sure you could "blame" the tragedy on someone's choice. It's not like the boys had much of a choice. Yes they could choose where they sat, but how are these kids supposed to expect a train to hit them and kill them. I think its unfair to say that they died because of the choice that they made to sit where they did.
I agree that the greatest tragedies happen by a mixture of the two. If you live through a tragedy where your bad choices affected someone else, and they end up seriously injured or dead, thats is possibly the worst feeling in the world. On the other hand though, if you are someone innocent and did nothing wrong and something happens like a natural disaster, you feel really bad because there wasn't anything they could have done (yes, I know this isn't always the case but I'm using a worst case scenario.
The tragedy that I read about was about two kids from Berthoud Colorado that had to get their legs amputated. Thet were trying to change a tire and they got hit and were pinned between two cars.
I beleive this was chance because they both got out of the kids got out of the car and changed the tire, when only one of them really had to get out.
Two boys lost their legs when they were hit by a 17 year old girl with an SUV. They both had to apputate their legs. They were hit when they were changing the tire.
I don't think they had any control over it, it just was a freak accident.
I think the greater tradegdy is one that is your own falt. If you survive and you killed someone then you have to live with that gilt the rest of their life.
The tragedy in my article involves a man hunting with his son. The son accidentally shoots his dad with his 22 rifle and is under the impression that his dad is dead. The young boy is shaken up and decides to take his own life because he thought he killed his father. The dad awakes later in the day and sees that his son killed himself because he thought he killed his dad.
I don’t really believe that this happened by choice and could be avoided. A young boy hunting with his dad accidents are prone to happen when hunting. I believe this happened by chance because the young boy couldn’t have meant to shoot his dad.
I believe the greater tragedy would involve it happening by choice because you can decide if it was to happen or not. And the aftermath is alot worse because you live to regret doing what you did.
The article that I read was about darent williams getting killed. I think that darrent williams dying was not a chanceor choice I think that it was a tragedy.
I know that darrent williams dying was an accident and the young teen boys who did kill him will be getting hard core time in jail.
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