Pending Legislation for raft-ups

[Chesagansett]

Phil -

While technically correct that it is "related" (in that the person was on their way to Canal Day events), Beth's assertion that ...

... "Last year canal day was really bad I know of three deaths and all had something to do with canal day" ....

is extremely misleading.

That statement could easily leave the impression that Canal Day events were responsible for those deaths, or that the person's activities (drinking, etc.) at the Canal Day event was responsible.

In my opinion, even saying the deaths are "related" to Canal Day is somewhat vague. The person who drowned had just arrived in the basin by boat.
Sure, had he not been on his way to the event, then he wouldn't have drowned there. But, would we say that a person's death is "related" to a grocery store if that person, while on the way to the store, crashed his car at the entrance to the grocery store? I guess we could say it's "related" to the store, but it needs to be stated in a way that doesn't leave the impression that the grocery store was somehow responsible for that death. Sure, we could say, "had he not been heading to the grocerry store, he'd still be alive". That "but for / had they not" argument can always be stated for any accidental death, no matter where or why.

I have read numerous statements on boating forums, similar to the one Beth made, that show that people have no idea of what really happened.

 

[psugar]

I think the event has been getting much better not worse. I enjoy working the event with my brothers in the Knights of Columbus. I am a huge believer you are responsible for your actions. The grocery store analogy doesn't hold up because you don't go to a grocery store to drink, but you do here.

Now does that mean they should close down the bars? Absolutely not. If you don't have bars, you can't support restaurants if you don't have places to eat and drink you don't have tourists, if you don't have tourists you don't have quaint stores, without all of those you lose the charm of the town. That is what many people fail to realize. Frankly the boaters are the best of the lot, much better than the person I saw trying to drive up the exit ramp to enter the bridge on St. Patty's day who was arrested.

 

[Chesagansett]

Phil -

The point of my grocery store analogy had nothing to do with drinking or not.

I wasn't trying to include drinking in the analogy of the grocery store, because the man who died was not drinking at Canal Day. He had just arrived.

Here's a better comparison than the grocery store if you'd like a destination that inludes drinking. Suppose a driver crashes his car in the parking lot on the way to "Joe's Bar", where he supposedly was heading to go drink. One can argue that "had he not been heading to Joe's Bar to drink, he would not have crashed and died in their parking lot".
Well sure, you can say that's true. But, that can be appplied anywhere. If we say that Joe's Bar is related to the death, we need to be careful in the wording so that people recognize that Joe's Bar was not responsoible.

Beth's wording regarding Canal Day was quite misleading, Or, she simply did not know the facts.

By the way, I don't know if the man who died at the town dock was drinking _before_ he arrived. I've read conflicitjg reports. But, if we suppose he was drinking prior to arrival, the same situation could apply to the example of a guy driving to Joe's Bar. He could drink before he crashed his car there.

In either case, it's not the fault of Canal Day, or "Joe's Bar".

 

[Chesagansett]

By the way, as some already know, the Chesapeake City Civic Association cancelled Canal Day this year. That affects the festival on land in the village. The usual boat party at the marina and the basin will go on.

The Chamber of Commerce is thinking of putting together a scaled down version of the land festival, and call it "Canal Fest". The Civic Assoc owns the name, "Canal Day", so the Chamber has to use the new name.

 

[mixman]

The Preakness "cancelled" the infield party a few years ago by cutting the partying. It's back in full force now as money talks, everything else walks.