Half -Empty
[2007-01-17 14:30]
Remember when I said that I didn't care? I guess I do. Sometimes. Apparently, it's pretty subjective.
The recent story of Jennifer Strange, who died of water intoxication, made me very sad. My heart goes out to the woman's family.
By contrast, I had much less sympathy for Matthew Carrington when I first heard about his death from water intoxication.
Why is that?
Matthew Carrington drank too much water in a hazing ritual while trying to join a college fraternity. Jennifer Strange drank too much water in a radio-show contest while trying to win a Nintendo Wii for her kids. Both stories are tragic. But, I remember having a "you should have known better" feeling when hearing Matthew's story that I didn't have when hearing Jennifer's, even though Jennifer's death occurred two years after Matthew's.
It's not that I thought Matthew should have known that drinking too much water could be fatal -- I sure didn't know about water intoxication until reading about Matthew's death. And I don't think any less of Jennifer for not knowing about it either.
I think I felt that way because Matthew should have known that fraternities are filled with stupid, cruel and evil people. That's probably an unfair generalization and exaggeration, of course, but not without basis. There are just too many stories like this.
In Matthew's case (from NPR):
The two pledges were ordered downstairs and told to do calisthenics in raw sewage that had leaked on the floor.
They urinated and vomited on themselves. Then... something went terribly wrong.
Doing calisthenics in raw sewage isn't terribly wrong? Does Hepatitis A ring any bells? Granted, when I was a freshman in college, I was pretty naive as well. But no one could have made me do anything in raw sewage.
Still, I should cut Matthew some slack, shouldn't I?
I think I'm more sympathetic of Jennifer because she died trying to do something for her kids, but I think the main reason is because I'm a chauvenistic pig. I still tend to view women as more precious than men. A woman has to be certifiably evil for me to take her off the pedestal. Sugar and spice, you know. If Matthew had been a woman trying to get into a sorority, I'm sure I'd have felt differently.
So, I guess the moral to the story is this: if you're going to do something stupid, be female. That way you'll at least get some pity from me.
Seriously, though, in both cases I hold the groups who encouraged Matthew and Jennifer to their deaths responsible: the fraternity and its members because they're stupid and cruel and evil, and the radio station and it's employees because they're at least stupid.
I'm glad that those responsible in Matthew's death received some jail time, and I hope Jennifer's family is able to receive some kind of compensation from the radio station, other than just a Wii.