Parents should ensure their children know how to at least dogpaddle. This is unsat.

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

I did not learn to swim until I was about 10, my father, being the kind person he was threw me out of the boat on the lake and said swim or drown. Of course my mother saved me, but it was obvious if I intended to fish alone with my father she was not going to be around every time to rescue me.

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The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. Indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

-Bertrand Russell

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable

-Laurence J. Peters

I never said that you had no right to have an opinion. I just said that it was, in fact, worth nothing.

-Maineman ( on 12 June 2007)

I get left on a reef about 20 yards from shore off Sugarloaf Key when I was 7. That was worse I think. When you get tossed, you have no choice. I had to make a conscious effort on my own.

Even worse, we were at my Little League coach's house and his 3 boys played on the team I did. Needless to say, I just sucked it up and went to it.

Both my daughters could swim by the time they were 2.

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

Blacks have denser bones and are less buoyant than whites. That's why there are almost no black competitive swimmers, even in the face of athletic prowess elsewhere, even into previously white sports like golf and tennis. But it doesn't matter. No amount of scientific fact can withstand the most overwhelming force in the universe currently: political correctness. So, black inability to swim = white racism. I say we sink this idea.

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Does anyone think it's weird that the two biggest goals of our time are "tolerance" and "zero tolerance"?

So basically you are saying that Black swimmers are so rare and such an exception that they have to make a Hollywood movie about them?

My city has a couple municipal waterparks and each is a sea of black children.

Take from that what you will.

Oh, if you had just left this part out, you would have had more class in my book.

Have you ever chimed into a thread, made a race distinction comment, and not include presumptive political spin like this?

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"Extremes to the right and left of any political dispute are always wrong."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Matt, that's my job. Here, it's apropos. The thread's about the lack of blacks in swimming. The article linked blames whites for this. I provided my response.

Love the Hollywood movie about black swimmers. Yes, if there's an area where blacks are oppressed, it's sports. What the flying butterfly? That's like an Onion parody or something.

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Does anyone think it's weird that the two biggest goals of our time are "tolerance" and "zero tolerance"?

Blacks have denser bones and are less buoyant, huh?

No amount of racist propaganda can withstand teaching people to swim.

Got news for you, WJ .. I sink like a rock if my lungs aren't full of air because I have almost no BODYFAT. And I'm Water Survival Qualified. Because I learned how to swim.

As in every other argument, look at the facts. It clearly states the cause in environment.

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

I see. So dolphins are better swimmers than monkeys because of environment. If only the monkeys were given swimming lessons, they'd swim like dolphins. It's so easy, I can't believe we aren't getting to work right now!

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Does anyone think it's weird that the two biggest goals of our time are "tolerance" and "zero tolerance"?

Dolphins are an aquatic mammalian species, monkeys are an arboreal mammalian species.

I think there are only a handful of monkeys capable of swimming at that. The most notable being in Japan.

A more apt comparison is that between Cheetahs and Lions in the speed contest.

Most monkeys have no little fat, they can not float. They have little reason to have learned to swim in most cases so when they fall in they sink and drowned.

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The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. Indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

-Bertrand Russell

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable

-Laurence J. Peters

I never said that you had no right to have an opinion. I just said that it was, in fact, worth nothing.

-Maineman ( on 12 June 2007)

Wait -- I just had another idea!

Water is racist.

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Does anyone think it's weird that the two biggest goals of our time are "tolerance" and "zero tolerance"?

Just because kids play in the water doesn't mean that they know how to swim.
It seems like more of a class issue to me than anything else. It takes more money to pay for swimming lessons than it does to spend a day at the pool.
Also more schools in poor areas don't have pools or swim teams.

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"What's this world coming to Cratchet? You work all your life to make money, and then people want you to give it away!"
Scrooge, Mickey's Christmas Carol

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Buddha

I can only speak for the High School I was bussed to in the "economically challenged" side of town. We had no pool but a swim team that met at the local Community College.

Nye all were of the Nordic persuasion. I got most of my swimming training when the Cub Scout Summer Camp coach said "You want a badge? Jump in. This is timed."

Sink or swim boy!