[at-l] Violence at 4 Pines Hostel

[AThiker at smithville.net (Felix)]

Jim Owne wrote:

> First - I'll echo some of the sentiments expressed here today - that 
> there is NO excuse whatever for a man to beat up on a woman.  Being 
> angry is NOT an excuse.  Being drunk is NOT an excuse.
>
> I will tell you that some women sometimes deliberately work very hard 
> to  provoke angry reactions in a man.  I've been there - and I've 
> walked away from that particular bit of nonsense.  But being provoked 
> is still NOT an excuse for responding with violence.
>
> What happened to Heather was inexcusable.. What happened to Popsicle 
> was inexcusable.
>
> <<snip>>
>
> In either case, if the female in question had been my daughter, wife, 
> mother, hiking partner - or a friend - the perpetrator wouldn't have 
> survived to do jail time.


Is the male/female thing really the issue here? I'm kind of under the 
impression that what happened to Popsicle would have happened to a male 
hiker, too. I'm also thinking that had Popsicle been a little wiser in 
her judgement and not said anything to an obviously drunken fool as she 
passed, this situation may not have happened. If I'd been the one this 
happened to, Jim, would you have killed FUBAR for me, too? Would that be 
EXCUSE enough?

>    My daughter once told me that she had little fear of what might 
> happen to her because she knew beyond doubt that if someone dared hurt 
> her, that I'd hunt them down and ....... I'll leave the rest to your 
> imagination. Believe me - your imagination isn't nasty enough. 


Don't leave us hangin' like this. Tell us.



> Moose rightfully laid some of the blame for the situation on the 
> hostel owner.  And on FUBAR's "friends".  But he missed one of those 
> who should have shared the blame - himself.
> There's no deep philosophical or psychological reason for my saying 
> that - just simple common sense. 


I think this is the same common sense that says that you don't mouth off 
to idiot drunks.


>
> And finally - do you understand that the shelter-to-shelter hiking 
> syndrome that's so prevalent on the AT is nothing more than laziness - 
> and dumber than dog crap?  Especially in this kind of situation. 


Hold the fone...The czar of "Hike your own hike" is now telling me that 
I'm lazy and dumb if I hike from shelter to shelter? How can this be? If 
the next shelter is 5 miles further than the next good campsite, and I 
hike to the shelter anyway, am I lazy? Or, dumb?  I sure didn't feel 
lazy that last 700 miles I hiked without staying in my tent.