Boy who died in fire while saving family members buried with firefighter's honors

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2014-01-30 04:33

Story here. Excerpt:

'Local firefighters have adopted as one of their own a 9-year-old boy who died saving six relatives from a fire that destroyed his grandfather's upstate New York home.

A stream of cars and fire vehicles made its way Wednesday to St. John of Rochester Catholic Church for a funeral service for Tyler Doohan. The boy died trying to rescue his grandfather, who also died, along with another relative.

Tyler's mother, Crystal Vrooman, said her son was a "sweet boy" whose sense of humor made everyone smile.

"I wish you were here for me to hold you one more time," Vrooman said, choking back tears. "Rest in peace my beautiful angel. You're a hero, baby. You made me the proudest mother I could be."'

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From: Is masculine culture toxic for boys?

'A popular trailer for a new documentary by filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom portrays boys as isolated, violent and depressed. According to the film, boys are driven to violent and destructive behavior by societal pressure to conform to a rigid code of masculinity. In this video, Christina Hoff Sommers responds to Newsom’s documentary and offers a defense of healthy masculinity.

Rather than seeking to reengineer their masculinity, Sommers argues that we should appreciate boys’ distinctive traits and encourage them to channel their maleness towards constructive ends.'

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Comments

This one confounds my usual cynicism. Mostly I'm just very unhappy for the boy and all who knew him. Take your pick of lesser evils: Boy lives, 6 others die only to be left in grief dealing with survivor's guilt for who knows how long, or the boy lives only to wrestle with a sense of helplessness from watching his family members go up in flames possibly well into adulthood. No winning for losing.

The message taught over and over by firefighters is to never re-enter a burning building w/out back-up, the right gear, and right training (i.e., unless you're a firefighter). At the same time, the fire company buries him as one of their own. Again, it's no-win for them, too. Do nothing and it looks like they're ignoring him. Hail him and it looks like they're encouraging his behavior but honoring his bravery at the same time. Publicly criticize his fatal risk-taking and they are reviled.

Only thing I can say re men's issues is this: seems the lesson that it's fine for males to risk their lives for others can't start at a young enough age.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2014-01-30 17:18