It is truly amazing to listen to the daily news and realize how often danger, disaster, and death are the result of someone’s failure to exercise character.
In drought-stricken areas of Texas and Oklahoma, wild fires are thought to have been started, in part, by people ignoring fire bans and burning trash. Had every citizen exercised submissiveness, a strong character trait, and obeyed the fire bans laid down by the government in that area, there would have been no trash burning. Others who shot fireworks or tossed cigarettes on the crunchy, dry grass also lacked character, and added to the danger, disaster, and even death that visited the area. Had every citizen in those communities been obedient to those in authority, lives could have been spared.
In New Zealand, a teenaged driver refused to stop for police. Instead, he sped away, hit a street light, made a U-turn over a raised median strip, and collided with another vehicle, sending that driver to the hospital. Had this seventeen-year old boy exercised submission to authority, the second driver would not have been injured; two cars would not have been wrecked.
In United States hospital emergency wards, the Associated Press reported yesterday, many people treated for heart attacks have been given overdoses of powerful blood-thinning medications. As a result, excessive bleeding occurred, endangering their brains, and sometimes resulting in death. If the doctors and nurses involved were to exercise greater measures of responsibility, attentiveness, diligence, and other vital qualities from the list of character traits, that danger could be greatly reduced or avoided.
In Seattle, Washington, an Alaska Airlines jet made an emergency descent and returned to the airport on Monday due to a loss of cabin pressure about 20 minutes after. The plane landed safely, and none of the 140 passengers was hurt, but the danger posed to them was a result of a ramp worker’s lack of character. That ramp worker did not report immediately that he hit the plane with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine. He said he didn’t know he dented the plane. That dent made a crease in the plane’s aluminum skin, and the crease became a 12-by-6-inch gash as the jet climbed to 26,000 feet. Had the worker exercised responsibility and honesty immediately, the crew and passengers would never have faced the resulting danger.
A Florida newspaper fielded letters-to-the-editor this week concerning poor cell phone connections while driving across that state’s long bridges. Writers reminded sharply that studies have shown a significant increase in accidents caused by cell phone use while driving. In some states this practice is against the law. One writer quoted the newspaper’s story of a “heavily wired bridge traveler … who constantly uses his BlackBerry and two mobile phones” and called the practice truly frightening. He suggested that the driver cited should post a copy of his daily schedule on the Internet so that others could avoid being in his path. People know the danger. Yet many refuse to exercise self-control and refrain from using their vehicles as mobile phone booths.
Those are just five of a tremendous number of daily occurrences in which a lack of character caused danger, disaster, or death. Character, when exercised, helps us avoid causing danger to ourselves and others.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?