Sadness

So, I'm sure all of you have heard about the recent tradegy that befell the Kim family. They were returning from a vaction in the Pacific Northwest, found themselves in a bad snow storm and became lost in the Oregon wildnerness. After having taken a wrong turn down a mountain logging road, their car got stuck in the snow. So, James (aged 35), his wife (30) and their two daughters were stranded and soon had to begin worrying about to survive.

Read the article that I linked to. Apparently, The Bureau of Land Management had locked the gate to the road so that it could not be used. One of the reasons they do this in the winter is to prevent events just like this. The authorities stated that the gate had been vandalized, the lock broken and the gate left open (which was more than likely not visible in the conditions the Kim family were driving in.

Had the gate not been vandalized, James Kim would probably not have gotten lost. Or if he were still to get lost somewhere else and become stranded, he and his family would have been much closer to life saving resources and would have been found far quicker.

In effect, that act of vandalism contributed greatly to the sufferring of this family and James Kim's death. Because James did not see a gate, he took the logging road thinking it corresponded to where they needed to go. He had made an honest error in reading his map, but had the gate been closed and locked when attempting to turn down that logging road, he would have realized he was off in his assesment--he would not have gone down that road and become stranded. But the act of vandalism created a false reason for Kim to think he was going in the right direction. Whoever the vandal(s) are, they contributed to this man's death.

And what is this act of vandalism? It is a broken lock and a gate left open. Seems like nothing really; perhaps nothing more than some juvenile tresspassing--something I'm sure we've all done. And since breaking a lock, leaving a gate open, and walking down a remote logging road that hardly ever gets used, isn't hurting anyone and it isn't interfering with anything, it's not that big of a deal.