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MJH

Bad Press in Phila. Inquirer on Cross Keys Fatalities

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After acknowledging that skydiving at Cross Keys began when the area was rural, and that there have been 27 fatalities in the last three million jumps nationwide, Monica Yant Kinney calls skydivers "nuts" and essentially calls for Cross Keys to be shut down -- because it is a threat to the people who decided to live near a dropzone.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/15495852.htm

But at least that was an opinion piece. Here is what passes for news:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/15495868.htm

The headline in the print edition is "Deaths of 2 men are brief interruption at skydiving school." The editors of the on-line version wisely toned down that headline, but the subtext of the article is the same: skydivers at Cross Keys are callous to the deaths of their own. The reporter did not quote one experienced skydiver who criticized the decision to jump on Sunday after the fatalities, probably because few would do so. As John Eddowes said, the ethics of the sport dictate otherwise. That may be difficult for those who do not jump to grasp (heck, sometimes it's difficult for me to grasp), but I doubt that many drop zones would have made a different decision.

Today's Inquirer illustrates how some who have never jumped perceive our sport as the province of the callous and the deranged. One almost gets the sense that these people do not understand that, life being a series of calculated risks, the surest way to waste a life is not to take any of them.

For many, the risks of skydiving outweigh the benefits. I respect that. There is no sense in making the gamble that skydiving entails if you don't enjoy it. For others, myself included, there is a beauty and truth in 65 seconds of freefall that justifies taking the chance that something will go horribly wrong. I wish the Inquirer respected that, but it doesn't.

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I told the following to the press here, when we had a fatality.

"We feel very badly when we lose a friend, or family member, whether it be a skydiving death, or a car accident. We don't quit skydiving when one of ours dies, anymore than we would roll up the streets and quit driving if it were a car accident."

The other thing I tell them is what a skydiver said to me once.

"I can go out and live my life to the fullest each day, and I am sure to die, or
I can sit in a closet and quietly wait for death to come, and it will surely find me.
I'd rather live life to the fullest!"
skydiveTaylorville.org
[email protected]

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They had a news interview, where some local woman, in a moo moo, stated that it was terrible that they didn't shut down for the day.

I felt like finding her, and asking, "Do they shut down the Dunkin Donuts every time someone dies of a heart attack you fat cow?"

Then I remembered a few things:
One, there are people out there that would rather sit on a sofa eating deep fried oreos and let life pass them by than go out and experience what the world has to offer.
Two, these same people will shout the loudest when any of us "nuts" intrude on their quiet existence, mostly because it reminds them that they have squandered the most valuable thing they own, the years god/buddah/allah/existence gave them.
Three, as I believe I heard PJ say once, and I'm sure he stole it from somewhere else, never fight with a pig, you both end up dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

Methane Freefly - got stink?

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Skydiving, as you might imagine, attracts a wild crowd. Some jump naked. Others, drunk.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


That's fucked up.



What is, that you didn't get invited for the drunk naked jumps? :o Getting bent over what the media says is like...not even worth finishing the sentence.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

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Ok, after actually READING the article, I postulate this:

Someone should kick her in the twat and use her for a snowshoe. One, it'll work as punishment for sucking at life, and two, if her cooter is full of foot, she can't breed.
cavete terrae.

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Ok, after actually READING the article, I postulate this:

Someone should kick her in the twat and use her for a snowshoe. One, it'll work as punishment for sucking at life, and two, if her cooter is full of foot, she can't breed.



LMAO!!! :D:ph34r:

g
"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?"
Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU
OMG, is she okay?

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My take on what is really going on with that op-ed piece, borrowed liberally from the item's content...
***

I know we're living in an era of extreme exhibitionism, but is it too much to ask people who get off on inflammatory writing to do it in their journals?

Honestly, I've got nothing against writers who spend their free time and opportunity cost writing opinion pieces. I've met enough of them to believe the feeling of scathing, even for mere paragraphs, really is a rush unmatched on terra firma.

But when people start discoursing into subjects they don't understand, the thrill is gone and should keep on moving. Preferably, someplace with plenty of page secutiry and no readers for life.

Imagine spending your Sunday morning reading flippant opinion pieces. You, too, could witness such horror if you happen to read, post, browse or peruse near the Philly Enquirer site.

While misguded parachuting columns are the norm - just 27 misguided events out of three million opportunities for one last year, nationally; eight in a decade at Freefall - the stories are nearly always the same, "involving chutes that don't open" or "open too late," or "divers who bump into each other in the air" or "get tangled."

Today, readers describe reading a column - a whuffo quoting a veteran instructor - struggle with failing understanding, her mind hurtling toward a deadline at 120 miles an hour, bouncing into callousnes, and smacking into vitriol before posting hard in a front page of a news blog.

"I knew she were in trouble because she was writing way too fast to be that close to the truth," a neighbor, Gary McCloskey Sr., told my colleague Joel Bewley. "I wanted to post a retort, My conscience wanted to know why I should waste my breathing. I said, 'Look, it's pointless.' She hit so aimlessly."

There goes the neighborhood

Back in 1984, when shel took flight, the blogosphere was nonexistent. If, God forbid, something someone had a thought to publish, it would not affect many because it woul dnot meet journalistic standards.

Today, the blogosphere is surrounded by technological developments and the spoils of megalomania. Everything from swanky subdivisions to mobile home parks - each dwelling filled with people who worry equally about rising property taxes and whether their insightful writings might not be taken seriously and whether people's opinions of their self-importance would tumble from the clouds and ruin the rhododendrons.

Blogging, as you might imagine, attracts a self-aggrandizing crowd. Some blog naked. Others, drunk (obviously).

With more than 250,000 users, area officials get an earful about everything from the content to increased traffic around the blogs, which used to be for peoples friends only, until the myspace phenomenon took teenage know-it-alls and paired it with guile-filled pederasts.

At least that tragedy occurred worldwide, so you can't blame the Philly Enquirer.

In 2006, an opinion on skydiving's mistake caused her to lose all credibility with the skydiving crowd, her statements like those of a puritanical virgin wondering why people find sex to be so much fun.

That same year, an errant blogger opined from a mobile home, lost his front porch, destroyed his back door and a metal railing as residents gasped. Somehow, the guy survived his attempt with meth.

Blogging the unfriendly blogs

The problem, an IT pro says, is that opining has surged in popularity right along with the population.

Those small, middle-of-nowhere psyches that serve as home base for the are suddenly somewhere, explains IT, executive director of the United States Self-absorbed High-Intellectually-Thinking, Hypothetically Editorializing Association of Presuppositions (SHITHEAPs), with 250 blogger affiliates.

Some blog in the desert, making the prospect of instant hot topics a destination vacation. But most die-hards blog in and around big cities, for the condescension convenience factor.

"Realistically, it's an evening activity," IT told me. "It has to be at this reasonable time. You've got to be single and full of angst to post op-ed pieces like this somewhere."

Once you've arrived, gotten a username and passwrod, and angsted up, why let facts, truth or understanding get you down? Especially on such a lonely fall day?

Within minutes after the next post, a dozen web-friends could be seen floating blissfully through the air, dreaming about their next rant, and praying it's not their last. (Editor's note to end this paragraph) For that would mean being at peace with themselves.


My wife is hotter than your wife.

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To be fair, while those riders of the Short Bus Of Journalism have their heads so far up their asses they can see their tracheae, it'd be näive to say that the callous "don't care" types don't exist in the sport.

But they're certainly the exception, not the rule.
cavete terrae.

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Skydiving, as you might imagine, attracts a wild crowd. Some jump naked. Others, drunk.



That's fucked up.

>:(



Yes it is but this DZ had a recent fatality where the jumper was under the influence. He died in the front yard of a family.

We can get upset about the "bad press" but there is some truth to it. This DZ has had several fatalities that due to it's proximity to populated areas were highly visible to local citizens. How do we think the locals are going to react?

More and more DZ's are having this issue. My home DZ moved a few years ago another 20 miles out of the city because the city was encroaching on it’s airport. The old airport is now smack dab in middle of suburbia. Good thing it moved. I was at Elisnore recently, they are working through local development issues too. One of the people on my team had a cutaway and was told, “if it goes into ‘that’ neighborhood it’s not safe to go in after dark looking for it.” Um great, not just development but crime ridden areas nearby.

Our sport does have to deal with development encroaching on formerly isolated DZ’s. We can always say “we were here first” but that does not solve the problem, real or perceived. The inevitable fatalities that will occur in this sport are tragic enough when they happen at isolated airports and only skydivers have to witness them. They are both tragic and a PR problem when they occur in the front yard of a family or near a busy suburban street where others have to see them.

A simple “we were here first” mantra won’t solve the problem. What the solution is I can’t say but this is a problem many DZ’s around the country face.
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

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You guys are so out-of-touch w/ reality. Heck, I'd be offended if two skydivers insisted on bouncing in my front yard w/ my four-year old watching. Now try to explain that to a kid!

And yes, I did a few tandems as POC myself.



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What a fucking cunt.

It really must suck to be her.

Sadly, I'm not stunned.

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Skydiving, as you might imagine, attracts a wild crowd. Some jump naked. Others, drunk.



That's fucked up.

>:(



It doesn't make the statement any less callus but she is probably basing this statement on an incident which is qouted in one of the articles...

unfortunately we need to consider this sort of reaction... as the community (it would seem) has some ability to close down dropzones that they don't want there... [:/]
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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of course the articles dont show what John Eddowes donates to charity and to the local municipalities

which btw they do also cover but in a less red journalistic way

Dave
http://www.skyjunky.com

CSpenceFLY - I can't believe the number of people willing to bet their life on someone else doing the right thing.

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How asinine. You don't need to be a skydiver to understand how ridiculously overdramatic that opinion piece is. Apparently the author has aspirations of one day reporting for the National Enquirer.

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...life being a series of calculated risks, the surest way to waste a life is not to take any of them.



Well said. It's going to have to be my new sig line!!

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You guys are so out-of-touch w/ reality. Heck, I'd be offended if two skydivers insisted on bouncing in my front yard w/ my four-year old watching. Now try to explain that to a kid!

And yes, I did a few tandems as POC myself.



Quote

What a fucking cunt.

It really must suck to be her.

Sadly, I'm not stunned.




Sweet, can I be offended if I buy a house by an artillery field and get a stray shell in my front yard?

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>Sweet, can I be offended if I buy a house by an artillery field and
>get a stray shell in my front yard?

Well, to be fair, the appropriate analogy would be buying a house near a military base, and to have them occasionally lob an artillery shell your way. I live about two miles from a Marine air base, and would be annoyed if they started jettisoning empty fuel tanks over my house. "You live near a military base; what do you expect?" wouldn't cut it as a reason to continue the practice.

Having skydivers land in people's back yards is indeed a problem, one we should address. Imagine the resulting stink had that tandem pair killed someone in a car when they impacted. We do have to take care that we do not endanger whuffos, even when we have problems like the problems this tandem pair had.

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You guys are so out-of-touch w/ reality. Heck, I'd be offended if two skydivers insisted on bouncing in my front yard w/ my four-year old watching. Now try to explain that to a kid!



He/she/it needs to learn some time. Shielding a child from the existence of drugs, alcohol, sex, mean people, death, and French Canadians doesn't make them disappear, it just means that exposure will be more difficult to deal with when the unnatural dearth of said concepts suddenly comes to an end.
cavete terrae.

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