Thursday, June 22, 2023

A Fool and His Money ...

Here it is, for free.

Five extremely wealthy people who each paid $250,000 to join an underwater expedition bound for the rusted hulk of the Titanic are now dead. Their vessel, a submarine-like thing called a submersible, had been missing since last Sunday. With no food, limited water, and even more limited oxygen to breathe, it all sounds like a bad dream with a tragic ending. Still, I can't feel sorry for them. 

Lest you think I am cold-hearted, you're wrong. When 12 little boys and their soccer coach were trapped in that Thai cave in 2018, I could hardly sleep at night and worried about them constantly, feeling as if each one were my own son. I cry seeing those ASPCA commercials showing abandoned dogs. Every news report involving a horrific death of a child sends me to bed to hide under the covers. This is because of a condition called "hyper-empathy," which means I feel the pain of others as if it's my own.

But not this time. If a group of insanely rich people can't think of anything better to do with their money than sink it to the bottom of the ocean, it's not sad, it's sick. What's worse, unlike our brave astronauts who risk their lives for the future benefit of mankind, these five went only to gawk at a wrecked ship that sank in 1912, peeping at it through the one tiny porthole in their tiny submersible shaped like a tin can and just as comfortable.

Just imagine what you could do with an extra $250,000.


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