Robert Seeberger wrote:
>
> Dan Writes:
> So, other posters are right, the overall risk of death has gone down
> nationwide. Its just that the risk of homicide/suicide has gone up, while
> death due to natural causes and auto accidents have decreased. Its also
> probable that upper middle class Texas has more risk factors than Minnesota
> and Wisconson.
>
> Rob Replies:
> A co-worker frequently tells me how fatalistic his kids are. They dont
> expect to live to be 40 and dont seem to really care about the future.
>
> When I was in high school I recall that there were several drug overdoses
> that ended in the deaths of some of my classmates. But my graduating class
> had around 950 students and the total school population was around 2800.
My graduating class was somewhere between 100 and 109. (It was 110 at
the beginning of senior year, and I know of one person who did not
graduate, and there may have been others.) I do not remember any deaths
in my class.
However, in the class ahead of me, one guy drowned the day after the
prom (alcohol and canoes and New England lakes in May do not mix!), and
in the class behind me, there was one death in the 7th grade (he fell
out of the cab of a pickup truck and his head landed on a rock, and it
caused a massive head injury) and one suicide in 11th grade. The class
ahead of me had probably 5-10 fewer people, and the class behind me had
about 20-30 more. (That was a statistical anomoly.)
A number of my classmates didn't give a damn. A number of my classmates
were careful and hoped to have grandchildren somewhere down the line. I
think attitude varies from kid to kid.
BTW, the shooting made the 11:30AM news here in Austin, fairly early on
in the broadcast.
Julia
