Cry Havoc and I are arguing the same side, so I feel slightly compelled to step in here, even if the comment wasn't directed at me specifically.....
Seven weeks ago I underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. Repeat: a brain tumor. The thing occupied about a quarter of my skull cavity, which means all the brain tissue was shoved into a space too small to occupying it. Several glands in the back of my head had already been forced down into my spinal cavity, like someone jumping out of a five-story window to avoid the fire behind them. I was so
hydrocephalic that the doctors were afraid the fluid would literally push my brain down onto my spine. There is no rational explanation for why it didn't. I had one doctor tell me, literally, "I am surprised you are alive right now." Miracle, luck, you can call it whatever you want, because the odds still say I should be dead.
So yeah, I do care about others being safe, because I KNOW what it is like to lay in a hospital, with a somewhat reasonable chance of facing major, life-changing side-effects, if not simply facing death. I am GLAD these people who go without seat belts or otherwise make extremely dangerous and potentially life-threatening choices have not experienced what I have experienced. I am glad they are able to take these stupid risks in their lives, because that means they do not know what it is like to legitimately face (but hopefully escape) the end of it. It is something no one should ever have to go through. Assuming they can avoid it.
The one thing I kept repeating in that hospital was that I was so glad it was me in there, and not someone else in my family. I'd rather me go through something alone so long as it meant saving two more. I told my family everything I felt, everything I went through, and did my best to describe the experience (the description, though, is still a work in progress), because I wanted them to learn from me. I wanted to use my experience to help them avoid something similar. I didn't want to see anyone in my family learn to not be stupid, the hard way.
Though obviously it is impossible to equate my thoughts toward strangers with my feelings toward my family and friends, I still do care what happens to strangers, for the exact same reasons. The kind of I experienced simply from a few bad brain cells (the tumor was not caused by anything I did) was enough for me to handle; I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to experience (figuratively) for something you caused by yourself. For something you had control over. Why would you want to do that to yourself? Why would you want to put yourself through it? Why would you willingly increase the odds, exponentially, of facing a potential deadly situation just because an activity was fun at the time? Or because something "didn't feel comfortable?"
And you say that you are "only hurting yourself." That's wrong. When you put yourself in danger, when you hurt yourself, you are also hurting every. single. person who cares about you. Many members of my family broke down in tears in front of me, and many, many more did so before/after they saw me. Today I returned to work for the first time since surgery, and the first thing one of my co-workers said to me was that her two-year-old son still includes me every night in his bedtime prayers. He barely even knows me ("Mr. Sam" is "Mommy's friend," and I stop by his classroom once or twice a day), and he's certainly not old enough to register what happened, yet he was still worried enough, at the ripe old age of two (almost three), to pray for me every night. What if that happened to you? If that kid, nowhere close in age to the driving population you were referring to, understood enough to be worried about me, don't you think that older, more comprehending others could also be hurt by you, too?
One of the worst parts for me, personally, about being in such a critical situation was that I knew was HURTING OTHERS as well. And I had no control over it. When you hurt yourself, believe it or not, you do hurt others. And in some ways, that hurt is even more severe than your own. Fortunately I don't quite remember most of my really bad times those first few days; the people who saw me then remember those times very well. Think my being in pain, throwing up, moaning and asking everyone available for help hurt them? It didn't hurt me. I don't remember it.
So, imagine for a second that you are the one in the hospital. Say you broke your neck while not wearing a seat belt. Now, imagine all of the people who care for you. Your friends, your family, those at work or at school, those who even know you peripherally, like two-year-old kids. Imagine them crying. Not being able to sleep. Praying all day for you to just recover from a stupid mistake YOU MADE. Such was the case with the roommate I had during my last day in the hospital. He decided to dive off a pier without first testing the water for rocks, and had to be airlifted to the hospital. When he came into the room, he was wearing a neck brace, with apparently some kind of spinal injury and something wrong with his brain as well (we were in the neurological intensive care unit, so there was obviously more to it; there were paralyzed people all around me in that place). His girlfriend was by his side, crying. His boss had called the hospital to make sure he was alive. His mother was in her car and on her way. How many people do you think he hurt by jumping off that pier? More than just himself, I'm guessing.
Yes, I do have "way too much time on [my] hands." Because I spent nearly two months forcibly doing nothing. First month, I was in the worst pain you can possibly imagine. Two weeks LATER and I finally stopped vomiting. Obviously, I have had quite a few medical problems of my own to worry about (I won't even get into the fact that I have osteoporosis as well, or that my grandfather just got out of surgery for cancer). Yes, they are enough. As for my life, well, I think the perspective I gained by almost losing it, was enough to increase the quality and my appreciation of it by ten-fold. And I worry about keeping it more than I ever have before.
You need to step down, right now. Clearly, you do care just about yourself. You do care about just your safety, only. And honestly, I hope you never experience something that makes you care otherwise. Instead, I hope you can learn from the experiences of others. One day, it may save your life as well.
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lmao
, sweet widely applicable scenario.!! And just because insurance rises because some unbuckled driver gets in an accident isnt that individulas fault, it's the insurance companies fault. They are the ones that are ing people over, not people who drive without their seatbelt. Disillusion yourself.
No words. It's wonderful that you can post to these boards today, not to mention in a completely competent and well-worded manner. Congrats on your life. You've earned it. =)
holy I've never been spun like this!! 
