I'll say one thing for you. You did a good job with the "bad guy" role. But you, too, are entitled to your opinions. Ever heard the old adage that you can't appreciate someone else's position till you walk a mile in his shoes?
I suspect that the various people here who refer to Mr. Kim as heroic and who urge compassion on others are more capable than you guess of taking care of themselves in an emergency. For one thing, many of us have lived longer and had more experience than, say, MastaC. But we've also had longer to struggle and encouter challenges in our lives. I'm a medical student, a former paramedic, and also a long-time former corporate information technology professional. But I've had survival training (through scouting), and I suspect I could muddle through. I'm also a lifelong Texan, and I hear about Mexicans coming across the border in search of better lives all the time. I also hear them referred to as courageous for doing so, an assessment I'd agree with.
As far as the Kims being stereotypical or incompetent or absent-minded, the point many of us keep trying to make--and it's obviously one that's lost on a couple of you--is that you cannot say what you'd do in the same circumstances. Mr. Kim was cold (it was snowing heavily in that area, and the reports I heard on the news and read said it was much colder than 32 at night). Hungry. Desperately worried about his wife and babies. He did what he thought would help. They'd stayed with the car for six days, eaten everything they had, burned what fuel they could, and listened to search helicopters buzz by overhead repeatedly without seeing them. He set off in the hopes that he could find help, and I wish you could see that you might have done precisely the same thing under the same circumstances. He probably wasn't thinking completely clearly. Only trying to take helpful action before he became any weaker. I think he used all the common sense he had. It's simply that the odds were against him. It wasn't necessarily a mistake or a blunder. It was a calculated risk--a big one--that didn't pay off in the long run. As far as the search director's question about why the Kims left the road, they found their answer when they learned the road-closed barricades had been opened by vandals. If you're referring to his having left the road on foot after he went in search of help, then, again, you cannot deem that a mistake or a blunder until you yourself are in those very same cold, hungry, fearful circumstances. Here's hoping someday you'll be tested in the same fashion so you'll eventually understand that you shouldn't judge what someone else does in circumstances you cannot comprehend or appreciate. (By the way, the search director's question was a real question. You colored it with your own spin when you provided that translated response in which you termed Mr. Kim "idiotic.")
