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A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

deseret.com

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Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#121

Post by bombcar »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #112
CPLX wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean it seems like the biggest change in this story is you. It’s true there’s more cartel stories than before I guess but if you wanted to go there you would go. I spent a week in Monterrey this year, it was lovely.

Mexico is of course full of some lovely places, but cartel violence has been increasing since around 1990 (so 30 years) and has spiked quite dramatically in the past 20 years.

And the difference between "fly into a tourist zone" and "drive across the border into 'real Mexico'" is a huge one. If you do it, you should know quite a bit or have a local so that you can notice situations before they begin.

Sure, the chance of actually being beheaded by a cartel is probably relatively slim, but it's a risk you don't need to take.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#123

Post by sschueller »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #4

> Outside, the sky over Escalante Valley, Utah, is blinding blue and cloudless, I don't enjoy articles that preamble about the lack of clouds in the sky. Here's the meat: > Kevin drowned in a kayaking accident at a friend’s birthday party. At 14, he had just published his autobiography. He was making plans to expand his 350-acre farm to buy up surrounding farms to convert to regenerative agriculture. He was saving mo…

"Kevin drowned in a kayaking accident" is very vague and makes me ask: Could he swim? did he wear a life jacket?

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#124

Post by simonebrunozzi »

The kid was 14 and, among other accomplishments:

> He was making plans to expand his 350-acre farm to buy up surrounding farms to convert to regenerative agriculture.

Kudos to him.

Every death is unfortunate, but I understand why the death of someone who shows deep care for people around him, for nature, for the world, is especially saddening.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#125

Post by jxramos »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #119

I hate this story and I hate most of the comments here. I homeschooled. I know a lot about homeschooling and giftedness and yadda. People who don't know anything about homeschooling and the myriad ways it differs from public school and private school -- it's a little like a bunch of Christians commenting on the life of a Muslim individual, having never studied their religion or culture or a bunch of Europeans in big…

I’ve been curious about homeschoolers and their perceptions and interactions with age ranges. I’ve heard criticisms about weird social distortions that manifest from the whole age stratification we find in schools through the grade system. Basically the values and preferences of a given age take on exaggerations among a bunch of peers that don’t get tempered by the opinions and thoughts from older peers and others outside the age cohort. Sounds feasible but real experience of the homeschoolers would be great to hear about.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#126

Post by jxramos »

aerovistae wrote: post #99

Okay so, I have to say, at first this was a pretty feel-bad story for me. I then noticed a tidbit of information in another article about it that somehow made me feel different: Cole Summers didn't know how to swim. He was out on the water in a kayak, with no life jacket, with only an autistic child for company - and didn't know how to swim. Somehow it stopped feeling like a tragic accident and more like carelessness…

This reminds me I need to teach my kids how to swim. I realized it recently having been around a bunch of rivers and lakes recently that they don’t have that skill and I forgot all about that while we were enjoying the water.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#127

Post by Broken_Hippo »

greenthrow wrote: post #70
lkrubner wrote: post #2

This story is especially clear and dramatic (and well documented) but I've often thought this happens in every generation: the people who lead (businesses and nations) when they are in their 40s and 50s are often people who boldly go out and discover the world while they are in their teens and 20s, and so they take on a bit more risk than the average citizen, and this includes physical risk (whether in travel or info…

This is not true. What the people who "lead the world" have in common most often is coming from a very privileged background. The idea that they are all iconoclasts or inherently in some way "better" than other people is a myth the wealthy tell themselves.

Even if they did all go out and explore the world in their teens and 20s, the only reason they'd be able to do that is because they come from a very privileged background.

Most teens can't leave the town their parents live in. Student loans aren't gonna pay for your travel and for the folks not going to school, there is a crappy job waiting for them that might give basic health insurance. There simply aren't resources available that allow folks to explore the world.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#128

Post by PedroBatista »

lucb1e wrote: post #87
yaomtc wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of clouds was relevant. The next few words you left out: > promising no rain as it has for nearly a year The area was experiencing a drought. > And then, after 14 months without rain, the well that supplied their house went dry. For nine months the Coopers hauled water by the barrel for their household needs.

Sounds like those words could have stood on its own without the fluff about what the present weather is like at the time of writing.

Cue the Simpsons meme gif “Old man yells at the lack of clouds”

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#129

Post by Broken_Hippo »

blobbers wrote: post #116
rendall wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to hear about any 14 year old boy dying, particularly one with such promise. To salve our feelings, to make sense of it, it might feel important to grasp some detail that makes it not so tragic. Resist doing that. It was a tragic accident.

No, it was blatant stupidity of all the people surrounding him. Life jackets exist for a reason. They save people who can't swim! It's tragic that it is such a stupid preventable death, not an accident. It's like saying someone drove around their whole life without a seatbelt and then died in a car accident at 14. Angry at his stupid parents, or whoever gave him the kayak.

"Life jackets exist for a reason. They save people who can't swim!"

Just wanted to add that they save folks that can swim as well. A lot of folks can swim a little, but not enough to get to shore if they are in the middle of a lake and wouldn't handle a current really well. Heck, even if you swim well, exhaustion is a danger. Life jackets help folks. Period.

Re: A remarkable kid has died in Newcastle, Utah

#130

Post by rendall »

blobbers wrote: post #116
rendall wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to hear about any 14 year old boy dying, particularly one with such promise. To salve our feelings, to make sense of it, it might feel important to grasp some detail that makes it not so tragic. Resist doing that. It was a tragic accident.

No, it was blatant stupidity of all the people surrounding him. Life jackets exist for a reason. They save people who can't swim! It's tragic that it is such a stupid preventable death, not an accident. It's like saying someone drove around their whole life without a seatbelt and then died in a car accident at 14. Angry at his stupid parents, or whoever gave him the kayak.

Sure, have feelings, whatever those are. Anger is valid.

This is more what I was responding to: ...and I just didn't feel as bad.

I wonder if your anger matches that which his caretakers feel at themselves.

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