seattlepi.nwsource.com — Brett Karch, an ROTC student, almost lost his leg due to a cannon explosion at a football game. The town's reaction? Threaten to break his other leg if the story gets out to the media causing them to possibly lose their ritual shooting of the cannon during football games, sick.
Dec 20, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountDec 21, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/snohomishwa/">http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/snohomishwa/</a>Please sign this petition in the favor of Brett.This is a very serious petition, let him know there are thousands out there who are concerned and are not very fond with the way those people are treating him....Sorry if this posted twice, lag caught my last post I believe.Share this with everybody you know, communities on the internet, family, friends, who may find the story just as awe-shocking as we did.
flamingbirdDec 21, 2006
how unfortunate... although, how many fireworks accidents occur each year in which minors are involved... a helluva lot. now add a cannon and a cluster f**k of high-schoolers, what do you get? the potential for some terrible bat-s**t crazy event to unfold.that young man's leg was all jacked. ouch!
profoblivionDec 21, 2006
Regarding people saying "email" or "use the comments link"...Problem is that BTSE isn't affiliated with the school.<a class="user" href="http://www.btse.com">http://www.btse.com</a>They're a marketing/web design place that specializes in HS sports. I'm not sure what good it would do to email them...
surferbetteDec 22, 2006
This reminds me a lot of the TAMU - Texas A&M - bonfire controversy. About eight years ago, while building a bonfire pile with logs - something that had been done for 90 years - several students were killed and many more injured when this 50 ft.+ pile fell, crushing and trapping builders.There was a lot of sorrow and anger on the part of current students and alumns that anyone dare take this tradition away - read this archived article from the school paper: <a class="user" href="http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2002/09/02/Campus/The-Texas.Am.Bonfire-518400.shtml?sourcedomain=www.thebatt.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com">http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2002/09/02/Campus/The-Texas.Am.Bonfire-518400.shtml?sourcedomain=www.thebatt.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com</a>Lots of complaints came out about how this would take away some of the school's "spirit". What about all the terrific things that those students would have done with their lives? Some of them would have married and had kids - some would have gone on to school, some would have started businesses - someone might have written a book, found a cure for a disease, invented something special. How could a campus tradition lasting a few minutes or days be more important, more valuable than the amazing, interesting adventures we all have in life? Sorry, I'm a big a fan of nostalgia or tradition as the next person -- and grew up in a town with a proud football tradition - but if blowing a cannon or burning a fire at a football game is the most important thing you'll ever do with your life, you haven't lived a very edifying life. I hope Brett's family knows that they are supported this Christmas - and that the losers who threatened him are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
surferbetteDec 22, 2006
I did not write that all risks should be removed from our society, which is the basis of your straw man argument. I'd be the first to argue that we need to do things like move forward intelligently with exploration of space and medical science, to benefit everyone, although some people will die. However, considering the longer term goals we're able to achieve as we get older and/or take more "educated risks", it is illogical to put a ephemeral stunt that is life-threatening, before opportunities that are more far-reaching personally and globally. That's particularly true if the stunt is on behalf of something amorphous like "tradition". There are lots of traditions that we as a society have decided are not rational, such as dueling a man after a verbal argument. (Do I think it was stupid for Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton to duel to the death? Well, it certainly ruined both of their presidential hopes.) Meanwhile, the smarter you are about the risks you take, the more of them you'll be able to take, and take successfully. Sure, we all drive cars, but we also have learned to build them with safety belts, air bags, and learned to drive defensively. With your straw man argument, it's all or nothing - a stupid and highly dangerous risk like driving under the influence on a highway is conflated with the statistically safer risk of driving to the street corner at 25 MPH. It's illogical to ask a student to risk their lives without parents and the student knowing the full implications of what they're doing. In fact, as we can all see now, the school was taking a huge risk - both with the student's life (since the cannon appeared to have a problem), and with the city's tax dollars (since if they're sued, they will probably lose big - in the courtroom, as they've already lost in the court of world opinion). You can't equate a kid blowing an unsafe cannon made by a high school shop class with the educated risk that an astronaut or a career soldier takes. But if the cannon kills the kid, there is a 100% chance that he'll never do a spacewalk, or become a Marine (just as Brett planned to). I also stated that I grew up in a town that is passionate about football and has many of its own traditions. I am arguing that it's illogical to want to keep certain traditions first and foremost because they're tradition, and would rob a group of people or town of its "spirit"... i.e. risking these kids' lives over a bonfire and a cannon because they could continue a legacy of pride... well, they could go on to do many other things that would elicit pride and improve life as we know it. Deciding to take a risk is as much about how worthwhile it is, not only in the eyes of one person, but based on what society agrees are worthwhile values. That can be argued until the cows come home.
moladoguyDec 23, 2006
Except for their own students:<a class="user" href="http://www.snohomishfootball.com/index.php?module=6">http://www.snohomishfootball.com/index.php?module=6</a>
macewanDec 26, 2006
@dragon874, search karmicksol@vsnl.net
topatoFeb 2, 2007
He currently has a poll up with the question "What should happen to the Belarusse gorilla graphic artist who put up the hoax devices in Boston? " GO VOTE! <a class="user" href="http://www.wrko.com/poll.asp">http://www.wrko.com/poll.asp</a>
firstmargaretApr 24, 2007
Beautiful! My cat loves this :)
tuaregoramaMay 17, 2007
Perfect! Who's able to open the link?
dmitriyvozJun 25, 2007
"tradition" my arse. I didnt think people were this self absorbed anymore about football. I guess i was wrong. I can only imagine how much crap some one else would have been in if a player got hurt by it. I think there might have been a lynch mob. I hope the family sucsessfuly sues, all the people who threatened him get put in jail for aggravated assult. The same theme on Russian sites: <a class="user" href="http://pivo.in.ua">http://pivo.in.ua</a> <a class="user" href="http://www.alcogol.kiev.ua">http://www.alcogol.kiev.ua</a>
stickyhoneyOct 9, 2007
Pretty low if you ask me.Stickyhoney | <a class="user" href="http://www.footyau.com.au/">http://www.footyau.com.au/</a>
donmangunoDec 4, 2007
daveddd: Tell your grammar teacher you need more help.
donmangunoDec 4, 2007
You don't need to support scrapping the cannon to support the kid. It was a stupid accident, and if the reaction hadn't been what it was I'd think it was an overreaction to abolish the tradition. However, as stated above, they should lose it now just for being so despicable.
donmangunoDec 4, 2007
and second?
donmangunoDec 4, 2007
Uh. Broken cannons on display in museums usually had a role in something more significant than kickoffs and touchdowns at a high-school football game.
danmoynihan185Feb 17, 2008
HAHAHA, Id rather do that then not do anything at all!<a class="user" href="http://foammattress.shoppingvideos.info">http://foammattress.shoppingvideos.info</a>
kscool259Sep 14, 2008
I go to Snohomish High School, and I did during the time of the incident. I do not want you to think this is in support of the people who threatened Brett, because I agree that they are idiots who are too wrapped up in tradition. I would like to say, though, that before you go criticizing our town you should take a good look around your own, because I'm sure you can find some idiots there to. Don't judge a whole group of people by something a few did, and don't criticize when you don't know what your talking about. The majority of the town supported Brett! I think that saying the town is "a f**king embarrassment to America, and the human race" and hoping that the football team "comes down with a case of jockstrap fever and disbands" puts you in the same moronic group as the people who threatened Brett. And just so you know, the cannon is no longer a tradition at SHS, and Brett still has both his legs.