This is going to sound odd, but there’s something about the word “Risk” that evokes happy memories in me.  It was 1969 and my brothers and I spent that whole summer hanging out with our best friends, the Doubleday boys.  Now most folks would assume that five boys, ages 9-13 would spend their summer vacation playing baseball, running through the woods, or getting into lots of trouble.  They would be wrong.  In the world of Hartman boy geekdom you would find us playing a spirited, day long, game of Risk with a little chess thrown in.  We would occasionally venture out for a long bike ride adventure but, for the most part, it was mostly battling to take over the world with the roll of the dice and little bits of colored wood.  While the rest of the world experienced the last summer of the 60’s, we geeked out on the Doubleday’s living room floor.  Most people don’t see risk in quite the same way.

I know lots of people who come from lots of different walks of life.  I try to understand why folks are the way they are and think the way they think but there’s one personality type that I really struggle with and that’s the person who is totally driven by emotion.  I know most of you understand what I mean.  It’s the person who listens to a logical argument, sees the facts clearly presented, might even concede all of the points, but in the end says something like, “But that’s just not the way it should be”, or just swears at you, and walks away.  Oh, and here’s my favorite response, “It doesn’t matter how much it costs if we can save just one life!”  And there it is, the most ridiculous sentence in the world.  Let’s take that sentence to its’ logical conclusion.

Every year, 20 children drown in buckets.  Conclusion:  We must ban buckets or drill holes in the bottom of the bucket so that children will be safe.  5 children drown in toilets every year.  Conclusion:  We must have waterless toilets.  Over 33,000 are killed in traffic accidents every year.  Conclusion:  We must ban all travel via automobile or trucks.  I could go on, but I think you get the picture.  Even if we locked ourselves and our kids in the house with helmets, elbow pads, and kneepads on we still couldn’t protect ourselves, or the people that would have to bring us food or, for that matter, grow the food, from all risk.  It’s ludicrous.  But that’s what some would have us believe.  That we can, and should, protect everyone from all risk.  Risk is also tied closely to freedom.  We are a nation with risk engrained in our psyche.  Millions of Americans participate in extreme sports, start their own businesses, and challenge themselves every day.  Others cower under the blankets demanding that they be protected from everything including their own bad decisions and that the former pay for it all.  To our detriment, risk has become a bad word.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should totally ignore risk.  There are lots of people who do ridiculously stupid things for the sole purpose of a quick adrenaline rush.  I wouldn’t, however, make them stop doing it.  I just don’t want to pay for the results of the stupidity of someone else.  If they want to personally assume the risk, then have at it.  The best we can hope for is that we educate people to the level of risk associated with any activity and let them make a decision with eyes wide open.  I like buckets.  They’re useful and necessary.  But when I’m done using it, I empty it.  If I’m concerned about drowning in the toilet I put the lid down.  Sadly, common sense and logic is lost to large segments of our society.   But the answer is not reducing freedom and liberty.  Life has no guarantees.  We can’t live in fear of things we can’t control and we can’t live our lives thinking everything out there is going to kill us.  I know people who think that every manufactured product and every large company is trying to kill us and poison us.  Let’s think about that for a moment.  Companies make money selling products to consumers.  If you make products that kill consumers then who is going to buy your products if they’re dead?  Will we live longer, healthier lives if we live in huts with no electricity or running water.  Of course not!  But without power companies and mining and drilling and manufacturing and the healthcare industry that’s where we end up.  Life without risk, like a life without freedom,  is a life of misery.