How do I go about..(a rant)

[nessum]

Interesting thread.......
Well, it is unfortunate that you had to call a day of diving due to others' activities. Though, I don't think you were without options at the time. As many have suggested you could've politely asked the "kids" to discontinue their smoking or move away, explaining that a) you were diving & did not want it to cause potential harm & b) one of you could be drug tested randomly. Surprisingly enough, most college potheads are rather mellow & understanding. They're not necessarily criminals as has been suggested (some will argue that they are because they're smoking... *rolls eyes*), so there's probably no need to fear retaliation for kindly asking a favour.
If they had refused, well... the car wasn't an option?
Sure, it's done & over now, so this may not help... but perhaps in the future you can weigh your options so that you can still squeeze in a dive.
I can understand that the park would not want to reimburse you. An apology may be in order, though. And it may not hurt for you to write a letter urging park officials to be more vigilant in making the place more family & diver accomodating.

 

[Fishlips_1]

Could the MOD that also deleted my posts, PM me as to why. At no time did I promote the use of an illegal substance. Not that I have a problem with it in the right place. But even still, I do not promote it. You must not have caught the moral of the post.

"You need to give respect, to get respect"

Altough you may not like it, but illegal things happen daily. From smoking pot, shop lifting, domestic violence, you name it. The choice is yours, sit on the bleachers or step up to the plate. There is nothing worse than someone who will sit and allow things to happen, then rant and complain about it after the fact.
I used to be involved with little league. Where theres lots of this going on. The dad that won't coach, but will complain about all of his/her strategy calls. The mom that will complain about the fund raiser, but won't come to a meeting to let everyone no her views. The grand parent that will sit behind the back stop and dispute every call, but won't put on the gear.
I guess my point is, you need to say something/do something when it may do some good, rather than waitng till there's nothing you can do, then whine and moan about it! To me, that is not a way to get what you want done, or gain any respect in the eyes of others.

I don't know why this has really got my goat, but it has. To see such closed minded people. In that they don't think they have the power to do anything about it.

I will close with this,
It's like a person that will ***** about the president and his cabinet, BUT WON'T VOTE!!
GET A CLUE, YOU HAVE SOME POWER!!!
Lips

 

[Bill51]

You've lost the point of the thread. You're just ranting about these guys because they were smoking pot. They may be rude and selfish but to infer that these people are criminals is just ridiculous.

Not at all. I grew up with pot growing all around me and people thinking nothing of going out and grabbing some ditch weed for the evening plus I think legalizing and controlling the THC content of pot makes sense for several reasons. If that were done, a reasonable THC level could be established so people taking these new highly sensitive tests wouldn’t have to worry about getting a positive result from a random encounter with a little pot smoke as they do now even though the level is well below any that might be “mind altering.”

What I have experienced that I find alarming is that during the 60s and 70s most pot smokers would show some courtesy if not a little fear toward an authority figure that politely asked them to refrain from smoking around others in a public place, but I have seen that change in the past 20 years. I have been truly surprised by the number of pot smokers that while not yet a majority is a large percentage that get very aggressive toward someone asking them to smoke elsewhere. Seemingly nice college kids on vacation that suddenly have become aggressive and even violent toward ANYONE interfering with what they want to do where they want to do it. This hasn’t just applied to smoking pot, but to kids loudly cursing in public places and other anti-social activities. Many of the confrontations I’ve had have been with wealthy college kids who let me know in no uncertain terms they paid for their lift ticket and they could do as they damn well pleased and if I didn’t like what they were doing to take it up with daddy's attorney – after the idiots took a couple swings at a pair of over 6’ ski patrolman.

I really miss the good old days when the pot smokers were nice mellow folks just trying to do their own thing and not bother others around them.

 

[lamont]

what you said was:

The problem with that idea is that many people who do illegal things don’t just stop at one criminal activity.

which is a bit of a stretch. the issue that you're running into is actually just the increasing prevalence of assholishness in our society, irregardless of what social group it comes from.

and the biggest issue i see here is really just polarization. if you adopt a confrontational posture, you're going to get a confrontational posture back and the situation has the potential to escalate.

consider your audience. if someone is smoking pot they don't want to have someone harass them about it. doesn't matter if its illegal or not, or if you think you're in the right or not. it still will cause them to get defensive and angry and react.

if, on the other hand, you just explain that you've got a drug test in a few days and you don't want to flunk it without being judgemental and allow them to respond with "whoah, that sucks, sure bro, we'll move somewhere else..." then you can resolve the situation without getting into conflict.

 

[Fishlips_1]

I don't think that it's the pot smokers'. I think it's society in general. Not being that old.(40 in December) I still remember the words Mam and Sir. But not to get off subject.The original post or somewhat close, stated that her boyfriend was in the military. Not condoning a fight or anything, but would think a man of such stature could handle himself against a couple college POT HEADS tactfully. Instead of bailing out and whining about it later. My $.02

 

[lamont]

to take a specific example relevant to divers. here in the PNW we've got a divesite known locally as 'cove 2' which is shared with a small passenger ferry and which has a boundary cable to keep divers on the other side of it and keep the ferry from fighting with the divers (most of the time the ferry pilots notice and get delayed -- so far the ferry has never had to win a fight with a diver in the water via its props...)

you can read more about it here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=102259

now, most of the time the divers at fault are just a little ignorant and need to have the rules explained to them, and have the rationale behind the rules explained. every now and then, though, you run into divers who feel like they don't have to play by anyone's rules. i feel its that kind of attitude which is really at fault here, both in the original post and in the incidents that Bill51 mentions.

i think one factor behind all of this is that we've got so many dumb rules in this society, and we've lost sight of the 'why' behind most of the useful rules, that you are starting to see more and more people who blindly backlash against rules in general. another factor is the increasing polarization in the discourse in this country, and the quality of the discourse generally lowering to the point where its the person who shouts loudest who wins. combine that with a bunch of egocentrism, privilege and entitlement and you've got a recipe for people being really huge dorks.