Death Is A Difficult Mistress

Fresh from today's "Best of the Web" on WSJ's Opinion Journal, one of the most ironic endings I've ever heard:

In September the Daily Nebraskan, the student newspaper at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, published a column by Derek Kieper that argued against mandatory seat-belt laws:

As laws become increasingly strict for seat belts, fewer people will respond positively by buckling up in response to the laws. There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group. . . .

Telling me to wear my seat belt is the same as making sure I have some sort of proper education before diving into a swimming pool. If I want to dive in without knowing how to swim, that is my right. And if I want to be the jerk that flirts with death and rides around with my seat belt off, I should be able to do that, too.

Today's Lincoln Journal Star reports the sad ending of the Kieper story:

Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died early Tuesday morning when the Ford Explorer he was a passenger in travelled off an icy section of Interstate 80 and rolled several times in a ditch. . . . Derek, who was thrown from the vehicle, was not wearing a seat belt.

When you flirt with death, you run the risk that death has something more serious in mind.

Ouch. William Shakespeare himself couldn't have written a more poetic ending to such a story. Sure, we'll never know if this gentleman would have survived if he HAD worn his seatbelt. It just goes to show you, though, that you can legislate safety, you can force people through bribery and other coercions to do what they "should" do, but in the end, they and they alone are ultimately responsible for their own actions and behavior (and even with proper care and diligence, there are still no guarantees). No matter how hard you try, you just can't protect people from themselves. Now, keep this small parable in mind and go live well!