So it only took a few weeks for it to happen, but finally, someone with a dollar-sniffing lawyer shrouded in the guise of doing good, has emerged from the chaos of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy. To the tune of $100 million, Irving Pinsky of New Haven, CT, has filed a lawsuit that is backed by the altruistic motive that, "It's about living in a world that's safe." Pinsky goes on to claim that the school system failed to protect the victims, of whom most were between the ages of 5-7 years, from "foreseeable harm".
My words here will most assuredly fail in expressing the frustration, irritation, and general disgust that I felt (and still feel) regarding this latest moment in human history. Does change need to happen? Most assuredly. Does perspective need to be taken? Beyond doubt. The details are all there, or perhaps they aren't, to convince you that this latest action is both ill-researched and ill-conceived. By his own admission, Mr. Pinsky acknowledges that he doesn't even know the extent to which his client was witness to the events on that horrible day. However, he does point to her hearing over the loudspeaker system in the school building the events that unfolded: the shouting, pleading, threats and unforgiving gunshots, all harbingers of what was about to reign down upon the rest of the Sandy Hook inhabitants that December morning. It was this "morning broadcast" that Pinsky sites as the impetus of his client's distress, yet was it not also her blessing in disguise? Without the mass communication, how many others would have fallen victim to a madman's (mad young man's) violent rage? If Mr. Irving wants to really make a statement and change the practices of how we protect our children at school, why not ask for policy change and reformation without attaching a dollar amount to the request? Yes, I know that money makes the world go 'round, but perhaps the loss of so many innocent lives is inspiration enough to incite a change.
A few years ago, I was involved in a car accident which resulted in my body sustaining multiple bone fractures and bruises, including 3 fractures in my left wrist and elbow and a compression fracture of my L2 vertebrae. In the legal sense of the situation, the blame for the accident lay upon the shoulders of the person who drove the 15-passenger Econoline van ahead of my little 2004 VW Golf GTI. When I careened into the 10ft. ditch on the side of the road where I had taken evasive action to miss the van as it came to an abrupt stop and resulting roll to avoid the stopped vehicle in it's path, a lawsuit was the farthest thing from my mind. However, that very proposition was presented to me just a few days after I was released from the hospital. At first I felt the self-righteous entitlement of, "Yeah, it's all that stupid person's fault that I just had to burn through a month's worth of sick days and lay on my back for nearly as long. I deserve some compensation!" As the legal process then began to proceed, I realized that this was not the right thing to do. There's no telling what was going on in that driver's life the day the mistake was made. It could easily have been myself in that seat behind the wheel. Besides, what good would a lawsuit do? It would ultimately have come out of the insurance company's pocket anyway, and that cost eventually would have been trickled back into society in the form of higher premiums. My real payoff: discovering that the van was filled with students from the county in which I live, ranging in ages from 7-18, and that not one of them was harmed in the accident. Please don't mistake this as some kind of weak comparison to what happened in the northeast, or that those events were a mistake in any sense.
My point is this: Suing for money doesn't make people sorry; it just makes them pissed. If you want real change, hang your claim on a noble purpose that isn't tainted with the veil of greed. Instead of forcing the state of Connecticut to pay $100 million, why not find a way to raise that money to support the community efforts voluntarily. Like I said, there is plenty of motivation...at least 26 reasons by my count.
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