# Dale Earnhart is dead and gone but... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 26, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790 "2001-10-26T15:48:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/1 "2001-10-26T15:48:22Z")
Has he been dead long enough to tell it like it is or do we still have to act like he is a hero? Is trajedy defined as some Ahole, being paid millions of dollars to drive at 200mph ,running into a wall or is it something more now? ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/2 "2001-10-26T15:56:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \*\*justinh \*\*\* > Has he been dead long enough to tell it like it is or do we still have to act like he is a hero? > Is trajedy defined as some Ahole, being paid millions of dollars to drive at 200mph ,running into a wall or is it something more now? You may well be right, **justinh** , but I, right now, am wearing “NASCAR” emblazoned shoes and use a “NASCAR” credit card (featuring the checkered finish flag). ---
**Author:** ![Blacksheepsmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@Blacksheepsmith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blacksheepsmith)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/3 "2001-10-26T16:09:45Z")
I’d heard Earnhardt wasn’t a very nice guy, and that he ran other people into walls, but I don’t know enough about him or NASCAR to judge whether he was an a-hole or not. Your question seems to be whether the word “tragedy” has come to take on a deeper, more serious meaning for most Americans than it did before September 11. I’d like to think and hope so. I’ve never liked the way that word and others are bandied about in terms of professional sports. For ex: It’s no “tragedy” that the Red Sox haven’t won a World Series in forever. Still, I’d say Dale Earnhardt’s wife and son have the right to use the word tragedy in regard to his death. It’s certainly a tragedy as far as they’re concerned. Earnhardt’s hardcore fans–along with those of Michael Jordan, or Ichiro, or Tiger Woods–may want to stop and consider whether athletic accomplishments alone make a real hero or not. It’s a cliche by now, but it’s true: the NYC cops and firefighters showed us what heroism is. Still and all, though, what real harm is there in people calling Earnhardt’s death a tragedy if they want? Or calling him (or Jordan, or Woods) a hero? Is that _really_ an insult to people who are heroes? Or is it that the more these words are thrown around, they cease to lose their meaning, and become less and less important or valuable? ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/4 "2001-10-26T16:43:41Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **Blacksheepsmith** _ > > \ > > Your question seems to be whether the word “tragedy” has come to take on a deeper, more serious meaning for most Americans than it did before September 11. > > I’d like to think and hope so. I’ve never liked the way that word and others are bandied about in terms of professional sports. > > For ex: It’s no “tragedy” that the Red Sox haven’t won a World Series in forever. > > \ Not to belittle anything you said, **Blacksheepsmith** , but what will be a **REAL** “tragedy” is when we look skyward and see an asteroid of considerable size only 5 or 6 days from impacting on Earth and discovering that we have _ **nothing** _ that will/can divert or destroy it. **That** is when the word “tragedy” will take on its REAL meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/5 "2001-10-26T16:43:41Z")
Is this a Debate, or a Rant? ---
**Author:** ![Blacksheepsmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@Blacksheepsmith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blacksheepsmith)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/6 "2001-10-26T17:59:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Not to belittle anything you said, **Blacksheepsmith** , but what will be a **REAL** “tragedy” is when we look skyward and see an asteroid of considerable size only 5 or 6 days from impacting on Earth and discovering that we have _ **nothing** _ that will/can divert or destroy it. > > **That** is when the word “tragedy” will take on its REAL meaning. \*\* Uhmmm… yeah… I… guess… I mean…sure… Except there won’t be anybody around to shake their head and go, “Tsk. What a terrible, terrible tragedy. Such a shame.” ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/7 "2001-10-26T19:15:00Z")
Last night, I got to drive a real NASCAR at the Texas Motor Speedway. I was never a fan before, and I wouldn’t call Dale a hero, but I have a new appreciation for what those guys do. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/8 "2001-10-26T22:04:06Z")
i wish _i_ could drive a national association for stock car auto racing. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/9 "2001-10-26T22:12:43Z")
sorry 'bout that. per the OP: i really haven’t noticed that much of a problem with the fans still being uppity about earnhardt being a hero, lately. It had quieted down by the time i left my job at the memorabilia shop back in June. NASCAR itself and the media still seem to have a problem leaving it be, of course, but that’s something else entirely. And I think certain posters here whose names rhyme with Yogurst need to lay off the crack? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/10 "2001-10-26T23:00:32Z")
a few of us “heretics” in the formula one ranks are still pondering this very issue when it comes to calling senna a real prick… thank you, mr. schumacher, for eclipsing more of his records and doing your part to slowly erasing him from the world memory. you are only 1/2 the prick that guy was… ---
**Author:** ![theretsof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e8c25b/32.png) [@theretsof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theretsof)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/11 "2001-10-26T23:32:26Z")
haven’t the mods kicked u off yet? ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/12 "2001-10-27T14:38:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \*\*Blacksheepsmith \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > _Originally posted by **Sea Sorbust** _ > > Not to belittle anything you said, **Blacksheepsmith** , but what will be a **REAL** “tragedy” is when we look skyward and see an asteroid of considerable size only 5 or 6 days from impacting on Earth and discovering that we have _ **nothing** _ that will/can divert or destroy it. > > > > **That** is when the word “tragedy” will take on its REAL meaning. \*\* > > Uhmmm… yeah… I… guess… I mean…sure… > > Except there won’t be anybody around to shake their head and go, “Tsk. What a terrible, terrible tragedy. Such a shame.” That’s very much not-true, **Blacksheepsmith.** The latest one (that we know of: Who knows what hits the oceans when no one’s looking?) of size to hit Earth was in 1918 (or so) in Siberia. It laid several **thousand** square miles of forest low, and the sound of the “impact” was heard hundreds of miles away. If you happened to be near “ground zero” (like within twenty miles or so) of such an asteroid (or comet) “impact”, then you might be right to say that “there won’t be anybody around”; but if you’re a hundred miles away, then it would be much like being near a bigish nuclear blast (less any radiation effects) **: Not nice!** ☹ ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/13 "2001-10-27T16:01:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sea Sorbust \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by \*\*Blacksheepsmith \* > > \*\* > > > > > [@](#): > > > > > > _Originally posted by **Sea Sorbust** _ > > > Not to belittle anything you said, **Blacksheepsmith** , but what will be a **REAL** “tragedy” is when we look skyward and see an asteroid of considerable size only 5 or 6 days from impacting on Earth and discovering that we have _ **nothing** _ that will/can divert or destroy it. > > > > > > **That** is when the word “tragedy” will take on its REAL meaning. \*\* > > > > Uhmmm… yeah… I… guess… I mean…sure… > > > > Except there won’t be anybody around to shake their head and go, “Tsk. What a terrible, terrible tragedy. Such a shame.” > > That’s very much not-true, **Blacksheepsmith.** The latest one (that we know of: Who knows what hits the oceans when no one’s looking?) of size to hit Earth was in 1918 (or so) in Siberia. It laid several **thousand** square miles of forest low, and the sound of the “impact” was heard hundreds of miles away. > > If you happened to be near “ground zero” (like within twenty miles or so) of such an asteroid (or comet) “impact”, then you might be right to say that “there won’t be anybody around”; but if you’re a hundred miles away, then it would be much like being near a bigish nuclear blast (less any radiation effects) **: Not nice!** ☹ \*\* Please explain what the hell this has to do with Dale Earnhardt. ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/14 "2001-10-27T16:37:52Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **racinchikki** _ > Please explain what the hell this has to do with Dale Earnhardt. Nothing whatsoever. Sorry. I drifted into a hijack. On the other hand, I’m still wearing my shoes emblazoned with “NASCAR” (as I posted yesterday) and used my “NASCAR” credit card, featuring a checkered finish-flag, just this morning. ---
**Author:** ![zoony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zoony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoony)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/15 "2001-10-27T18:13:42Z")
If we’re picking “tragedies” in [southern accent] race car drivin’ [/southern accent], then I pick the late Greg Moore. I know squat about Dale Sr., but Moore was a 24 year-old kid who gave damn-near all his spare time to children’s charities, his families and colleagues. Mention of his name _still_ makes his fellow drivers cry, two years after his death. z ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2001, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/16 "2001-10-27T18:21:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zoony \* > \*\*If we’re picking “tragedies” in [southern accent] race car drivin’ [/southern accent], then I pick the late Greg Moore. > > I know squat about Dale Sr., but Moore was a 24 year-old kid who gave damn-near all his spare time to children’s charities, his families and colleagues. Mention of his name _still_ makes his fellow drivers cry, two years after his death. > > z \*\* I hear ya. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/17 "2001-10-28T04:22:10Z")
Theretsof, No they haven’t kicked me off yet. they must be busy watching you. I meant to ask about D.E. before. when he first bit it, I was amazed at the tribute, you would think this guy walked on water. or at least was a nice guy. I was wondering when it wouldn’t be blasphemy to write him off for what he was. I don’t have anything against him, but it does trivialize other events when you call his driving into a wall a trajedy. I wonder what it is that makes people do that? you would have thought Kennedy was about to cure cancer when he flew that plane into the bay. nobody bothered with the other two passengers. ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/18 "2001-10-29T01:32:22Z")
Well, that’s because he was a Kennedy. Anyways, as one living in a house with two NASCAR fanatics, I think the main reasons were that he was such a famous driver _almost a living legend, even before he died_ and also because nobody expected him to go out like that, on the first race of what was gonna be his last season, and the first season of his son racing in NASCAR. I mean, if MJ should _God forbid_ die suddenly, during a basketball game, then everyone would probably be sportin their #23 jerseys and Jordans to every game for about a month. It’s almost the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/19 "2001-10-29T19:29:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \*\*racinchikki \* > \*\*…And I think certain posters here whose names rhyme with Yogurst need to lay off the crack? 😕 Somehow I missed your crack about “certain posters whose names rhyme with Yogurst…”! Uncalled for. Untrue. I wouldn’t even recognize a piece of crack if you were to try to sell it to me, **racinchikki.** 😃 And by the way, **racinchikki** , the OP reads > [@](#): > > …Is trajedy defined as . . . or is it something more now? I **recant** my admission that I was in an accidental hijack. It wasn’t a hijack at all. **I was responding _directly_ to the OP!** Which asked about the definition (by example) of the word **tragedy**. What could be more tragic than to spot an asteroid (that was too dark to see by conventional telescope) only a little way out—too close to even think about trying to stop it. To watch it strike the North Atlantic and collapse the existing underground geological fault off of the N.E. U.S. coast. To watch CNN’s satilite TV coverage of city after city along the Eastern U.S. seaboard disappear under the resulting tidal wave. To watch the 100 foot high wave wash all the way into the foothills of the Apalachins? Wiping out everything in its path. To listen to President “P.” Bush (aka “Bush IV”) say that we didn’t have the funds to field a **real** asteroid hunting/charting effort? To have CNN remind us that all the nukes had been destroyed so that the world wouldn’t be threatened----thus giving up any chance of stoping **T** he **A** steroid **T** hat **A** te **T** he **E** astern **S** tates? To listen to his mournful prayer over the dead tens of millions? (To watch the Afganis rejoice with glee?) Now, to directly address the definitional question in the OP, **THAT** will be a tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790/20 "2001-10-30T01:25:22Z")
**SS** , I don’t know if you took it seriously or not, but just in case I hurt your feelings, I’d like you to know that my “lay off the crack” comment was not intended as a personal attack on you. It’s just my stock phrase for when I don’t understand what a person is getting at. I’ll try to remember to think about its possible ramifications before using the phrase on a message board from now on. That said, I still don’t really see what relevance your hypothetical situation truly has to the OP. I mean, of course I understand what you’re getting at by it, and I understand how you connected it to the OP, but somehow I doubt that **justinh** posted about Dale Earnhardt in hopes of getting a rant about the nation’s lack of preparedness for big-assed asteroids… 😕 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dale-earnhart-is-dead-and-gone-but/89790.md?page=2)