With all due sympathy to the respective families, it has been painful to watch the slow-motion tragedy at the Titanic gravesite. Predictably, critics who enjoy labeling others as stupid are promptly labeling the dead as stupid. I object to that!

I remember a Master Sergeant telling me on a rainy Friday night long ago that “unless you look death in the eye, lieutenant, how do you know if you’re even alive?” I never forgot that lesson. Those who died were not stupid. They were chasing a dream! They were willing to put it all-on-the-line. Are you . . . just to chase a dream?

There’s an old Jimmy Buffet song that it is better “to die while I’m living than to live while I’m dead.”

Is it better to care more about your balance sheet than your experiences? I salute the dead!