› Forums › Geocaching in Wisconsin › General › Suspicious device in Allouez park is part of game
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gotta run.
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03/21/2009 at 1:17 pm #1903900
Is it not time to let this topic die a decent death?
03/21/2009 at 1:37 pm #1903901On the Left Side of the Road...03/21/2009 at 1:38 pm #1903902@marc_54140 wrote:
Is it not time to let this topic die a decent death?
No one’s forcing you to read it. Just click “stop watching this topic” at the bottom of this page. Problem solved.
On the Left Side of the Road...03/21/2009 at 2:51 pm #1903903Is it not time to let this topic die a decent death?
Actually I have enjoyed reading everyone’s take on this subject. We have a message board to allow everyone to discuss. A discussion like this is bound to last longer than other topics…
03/21/2009 at 3:25 pm #1903904@-cheeto- wrote:
Is it not time to let this topic die a decent death?
Actually I have enjoyed reading everyone’s take on this subject. We have a message board to allow everyone to discuss. A discussion like this is bound to last longer than other topics…
But if you actually think out a rational argument contrary to the views of a few vocal members, you get accused of having “anger management issues.” Who wouldn’t want to contribute to the discussion?
That’s OK. I needed a little reminder as to why I largely ignore the forums as a whole.
03/21/2009 at 3:27 pm #190390503/21/2009 at 5:24 pm #1903906@3 Hawks wrote:
argument contrary to the views of a few vocal members
I enjoy reading all viewpoints. As do others who are less vocal as well.
@3 Hawks wrote:
I needed a little reminder as to why I largely ignore the forums as a whole.
To each his own I guess. It’s WAY worse on the geocaching.com forums than it is here. I hardly EVER type anything there. Here I still feel like I can and should contribute. You have your opinion and the others have there’s. Your opinion is respected as are those of the more vocal members here.
@3 Hawks wrote:
The public perception cast by the story is the direct consequence of our actions.
Actually “the perception cast” in this case was Fox 11’s crafting of the broadcast. Fox 11 proudly proclaims “fair and balanced”. That news “story” was very far from balanced, I won’t comment on the fair but it was not balanced. They chose to portray geocaching in a specific way in light of the bomb squad having to blow up something suspicious.
Did “we” the geocachers cause geocaching to be portrayed this way in the news. I actually don’t think so! I think general hysteria, lack of common sense, and the news media shooting for ratings rather than reporting the news caused this particular portrayal of geocaching.
I agree with gotta run on the usage of words in a news article. They have plenty of time to work out the details of any news story. They pay college educated employees to research & write the news stories. They researched geocaching before reporting (at least they did that much!) but then deliberately chose to use specific words to portray this activity to the general public. Would they have used the word “device” if the story was not related to the bomb squad exploding a suspicious device in a park? Probably not.
I’m sorry if others disagree but this is a case where the news station that my family regularly watches was indeed not fair and balanced as they try so hard to be.
03/21/2009 at 6:41 pm #1903907@-cheeto- wrote:
@3 Hawks wrote:
The public perception cast by the story is the direct consequence of our actions.
Actually “the perception cast” in this case was Fox 11’s crafting of the broadcast. Fox 11 proudly proclaims “fair and balanced”. That news “story” was very far from balanced, I won’t comment on the fair but it was not balanced. They chose to portray geocaching in a specific way in light of the bomb squad having to blow up something suspicious.
Did “we” the geocachers cause geocaching to be portrayed this way in the news. I actually don’t think so! I think general hysteria, lack of common sense, and the news media shooting for ratings rather than reporting the news caused this particular portrayal of geocaching.
I agree with gotta run on the usage of words in a news article. They have plenty of time to work out the details of any news story. They pay college educated employees to research & write the news stories. They researched geocaching before reporting (at least they did that much!) but then deliberately chose to use specific words to portray this activity to the general public. Would they have used the word “device” if the story was not related to the bomb squad exploding a suspicious device in a park? Probably not.
I’m sorry if others disagree but this is a case where the news station that my family regularly watches was indeed not fair and balanced as they try so hard to be.
Cause…..A cache was placed. Effect……The cache was blown up and an unfavorable light was shed on geocaching. Although this was not the desired or intended effect, and there were many intermediate factors, the simple fact remains that this specific incident happened and the series of events leading to the final outcome all began when the cache was placed.
03/21/2009 at 10:21 pm #1903908@3 Hawks wrote:
Cause…..A cache was placed. Effect……The cache was blown up and an unfavorable light was shed on geocaching. Although this was not the desired or intended effect, and there were many intermediate factors, the simple fact remains that this specific incident happened and the series of events leading to the final outcome all began when the cache was placed.
What does this have to do with anything? All actions have reactions. Sometimes a cache is placed, visited a hundred times and is never seen my muggles. Other times a cache is placed, is visited once, is seen and subsequently removed. Variables.
None of us are arguing that a reaction happened. None of us are arguing that the root cause was not an unusual container in a place were you wouldn’t naturally find one. These are the givens, are they not? I don’t see anyone arguing Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
It’s been pointed out numerous times what many of us are questioning about the incident and I’m not going to hash them all over again, suffice it to say that I think it has less to do with a question of “blame” and more to do with a question of “justification”.
I think something positive HAS come out of this discussion, and therefor makes it worth the 6 pages in the forums. That local law, fire and park officials need a contact person(s) who can be reached, within reason, whenever questions of this nature arise, to possibly mitigate the “just-doing-our-job” response to these suspicious activity calls.
It’s not a cure-all. It wont wholly prevent caches from being destroyed in the future if other mitigating factors play a role in the decision to remove or destroy a “device”.
BUT, it does say to every official body entrusted with public safety that we, the geocaching community, not only realize the potential exists for out sport, and elements of it, to be misinterpreted but also that we would like to do something about it and will take steps to help prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
Lastly, living in a democracy, it is my right to question authority in whatever for it takes, if it seems like it should be questioned. Just because a group is given the charge to serve and protect does not mean they should never be questioned, nor does it mean that I give them any less credit or respect.
04/20/2009 at 7:15 pm #1903909rofl, can’t believe I missed this thread.
04/23/2009 at 2:35 am #1903910Okay, in response to FireHogs here:
I can certainly appreciate why my one log on the cache listing was deleted. I have not and will not argue against that. However, when a cacher places a cache stating something to the effect of, “A cacher lives over there in relation to this cache” and then another cacher finds the cache, stating in their log, “I’m the cacher who lives there”, it’s pretty easy for me to connect the dots. I see the cache I referenced is no longer active, or at least was listed at dummy coords last time I checked, which I personally believe to be a good thing for the time being considering current circumstances. With that said, I have no doubt that you were doing what you thought was right, considering what was really going on that morning. If you and everyone else had that day to do all over again, I know nothing would have been done differently.
In regards to making a spreadsheet, I made this list of caches in the village of Allouez.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
04/23/2009 at 3:43 am #1903911Since this thread got resusciated, I will go ahead an post this news story posted by no less than Jeremy Irish on the same topic. Please note the last sentence, which I think is what most of us have been saying all along:
04/23/2009 at 4:00 am #1903912Ralph, where does it say anything about Irish? I must be missing it.
04/23/2009 at 4:21 am #1903913@cheezehead wrote:
Ralph, where does it say anything about Irish? I must be missing it.
I got the story off of Jeremy Irish’s facebook page.
z
04/23/2009 at 4:28 am #1903914@zuma wrote:
@cheezehead wrote:
Ralph, where does it say anything about Irish? I must be missing it.
I got the story off of Jeremy Irish’s facebook page.
z
You need to get back out caching, you’re becoming a stalker.
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