Voices
Bitter lawsuit not constructive in Paluch tragedy
Your front-page headline in the first edition of the paper for 2019 states, “Soccer-goalpost tragedy far from over”. It will never be over, because the pain of losing a child remains with you for as long as you are breathing. I walk in those footsteps.
Yvonne Kaplan, Johannesburg
I pity the Paluch family, because as long as they keep this feud alive, they will not begin to deal with their pain. Blame, accusation, and anger are the first part of the grieving process. It is only when you let go of these feelings that you can move on.
“On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.” Perhaps they should rather institute a lawsuit against G-d, and place blame on this decree. It seems to me that their spiralling legal costs must be covered by some benefactor with misplaced ideals, since legal costs become large amounts in a short time.
I would feel greater sympathy if they used this money to engage engineers to draw up specifications for the securing of goal posts, and then travelled the length and breadth of South Africa to ensure that every school and sports club adhered to these safety measures. Something good could then come out of something bad.
Extorting money from the school and its insurers cannot ease the pain of their loss. Their anger and bitterness would be constructive if it was directed rather at a concrete project to ensure the safety of other children. They say repeatedly that this is their aim. As a wise man said: there are three sides to every story. The loss of a young life is tragic enough. Punitive bitterness does not reflect well.