Posted by Joe B on June 01, 2004 at 16:19:52:
In Reply to: Re: Drifting Dan . . one more time posted by Puzzled on June 01, 2004 at 15:13:52:
of the abyss of the never-ending Drifting Dan debate. We must be strong and resist the urge to do it all over again!
Now if I were weaker, I'd say I agree with Puzzled. Yeah sure the captain is always responsible, but that's a legalistic overall responsibility sort of thing. The actual cause of Dan being left behind here is the DM's failures. Captain Ray will get spanked by the CG but the DM is there to perform a function and he didn't. (No, he didn't. Really. He didn't.)
I mean we could blame Dan's parents for having him in the first place. That would be silly but not much more so than some of the posters who've decided it's "primarily" Dan's fault for drifting away, or who just regurgitate the "Captain is always responsible" rule.
I thought Dan handled his near-death experience (and don't minimize how near it was) in as low-key and polite a way as possible. He isn't suing anybody, he isn't seeking publicity, but he's being vilified by people he's never met who sit in their armchairs (yeah me too) and analyze the situation with a drink and a snack at hand.
Let's leave the poor guy alone. We have all had a lovely opportunity now to analyze everything about this situation possible. So we can all do whatever we feel we need to now to make sure it never happens to us. And about the only thing you can be sure of is that it will happen again to somebody, somewhere. And sooner than we think.
Peace.