Texas A&M bonfire disaster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Texas A&M bonfire disaster - Essay Example This critical essay presents a brief look at what can be learnt from the previously mentioned incident and the essay illustrates how communications play an important role in disaster mitigation and emergency response. On November 18, 1999 preparations for the annual Texas A & M University bonfire which used to be an annual event on the eve of the football game between Texas A & M University and its archrival the University of Texas at Austin went horribly wrong when the forty foot stack which was being constructed for the bonfire collapsed. The collapse occurred during the early morning hours on the previously mentioned date. The stack that was being constructed consisted of approximately 5000 logs which were being stacked for a bonfire and as a result of the collapse twelve people died and another twenty - eight had to be hospitalized with serious injuries. 1 The incident was particularly sad because most of those that suffered were young people who were preparing for what was supposed to be an event that had been a part of the university tradition for a long time. The previously mentioned incident was an emergency response incident and although emergency medical personnel from the University Emergency Medical Service were on the scene at the time of the collapse, a 911 call was considered as being appropriate considering the magnitude of the disaster. The first 911 call was received at the City of College Station’s Emergency Communications Center at 02:43 hours and this means that a delay had possibly occurred before it was decided that a call had to be made for further assistance. The caller had reported that the bonfire stack had collapsed at the university campus and that as many as thirty people were suspected to be trapped under logs. Emergency response was swift and the first ambulance and fire teams arrived on the

Define war or peace. Your argument is that definition. Your thesis is Essay

Define war or peace. Your argument is that definition. Your thesis is that - Essay Example Some synonyms of the word war meaning relatively the same thing are: battle, bloodshed, conflict, contention, contest, enmity, fighting, hostility, police action, strife, strike, struggle, attack, and combat. There are many different kinds of wars. There is a civil war, which is a war between different sections or parties of the same country or nation. There is a holy war, which is a crusade; an expedition carried on by Christians against the Saracens in the Holy Land, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, for the possession of the holy places. And there is public war, which is a war between independent sovereign states. But there all war, F. W. Robertson once said, "Men will ever distinguish war from mere bloodshed". In my research paper war, will mean armed conflict, between nations; hostility or struggle. But will also: battle, bloodshed, conflict, contention, contest, enmity, fighting, hostility, police action, strife, strike, struggle, attack, and combat. Because in my dictionary war is war. Organized crime is not relative. It is universally condemned, because most right-thinking individuals realize that such activity is detrimental to the human race as a whole. War on the other hand refuses to be evaluated objectively, because it is an act of violence sanctioned by the state, an amorphous entity claiming to represent the views, beliefs and morality of its citizenry, and that is why war is far more insidious than organized crime. "Crime" is a word that brings to mind acts of selfishness, antisocial acts that disrupt the functioning of society, that cause hurt or suffering. It is always evaluated while bearing in mind fairness, and thus what is unfair is often a crime. Stealing relegates property that rightfully belongs to its owner to someone else. Murder deprives an individual of the right to live. It is this innate moral compass that helps the majority of men to be able to judge what is crime and what is not, and therefore crime appears to us as a cut-and-dried subject, easily defined and identified. What about war Indeed, there are still many men in this modern world who in their great wisdom proclaim that war is an amoral tool, which can be used for good, or for the greatest evil. Genghis Khan, the Great Mongol Conqueror (if conquering through bloodshed accrues greatness) once said, "Let him who desires peace, prepare for war." His enemies all agreed with him on this point, yet perished underneath the unshod hooves of stocky Mongol ponies. Our leaders today tell us that war must be an option made available to the nation-state, lest we should lose our peace. Some primal instinct that makes us uneasy with war must still flow through our veins, for men to have to keep thinking of new, pallid platitudes and aphorisms to justify war. Could it be that this primal instinct is related to the innate moral compass that helps us identify what is criminal Let us look at the similarities between crime and war. The former involves taking property belonging to someone else; the latter involves taking territory belonging to someone else because you believe it rightfully belongs to you. Crime sometimes involves killing; war requires you to kill, to defend your nation. Once again we see the constant need to justify war. It is, in the eyes of