This is an opinion column
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Today’s guest columnist is Jennifer L. Greer.
I was vacationing on the Gulf of Mexico last month when three young men, in their 20s, drowned in a rip current within hours of arriving in Panama City Beach, Fla.
They were from my adopted hometown, Birmingham, Ala. It was painful to hear the tearful sister of one young man describe how she longed for one last brotherly hug. She told a TV reporter: “I wish we had done more research (about the currents) before we went.”
Equally shocking was the unprovoked shark attack at Seacrest Beach, Fla., last month on two teenage girls from Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham. As I read an account of one teen’s life-threatening injuries, I was struck by the innocence of their activity – hunting for sand dollars in waist-deep water.
The mother says her daughter has made heroic progress, and the …