We have had to come to terms with the fact that a young man would deliberately crash an airplane with 149 people on board because he wanted to end his own life. Why would he do that? Simply because he could!
It has happened several times in the recent past, resulting with over 500 people having lost their lives, and it will happen again in the future. That is just one of the many risks of life with which we must cope. Whether we get to live to celebrate our 100th birthday will require good health, a prudent lifestyle, and a really good measure of very good luck.
Statistically, commercial air travel is still far safer than driving.There are far fewer journeys that end in a crash when flying than when driving. When we set out on a car journey we trust that we will return safely. We should be sober and alert, and we should obey the rules of the road to improve the odds of survival. In the end we rely on our fellow drivers to do the right thing at the right times, and they rely on us to do the same thing. Here in Spain the loss of life on the roads has been improving, in that far fewer people have been victims over the past several years. This is due to a growing sense of responsibility; more people choosing not to drink alcohol our drive under the influence of drugs that impair judgement.
We are proving to ourselves that we can pull together to make a success of driving safely.
The deliberate loss of Germanwings flight AU 9525 should be mourned and the actions of that young man should be condemned, but the best thing that we can do to honour the victims is to live our lives so that no other person loses their life just trying to get from one place to another.
We can do that! I am sure we can!
Copyright 2015 Eugene Carmichael
