Safety Through Skill

We've been talking a lot about safety tonight, how to be safe ourselves and make our homes and community safe. I think the lesson is partly exercising our common sense and partly learning the skills of safety.

What do we mean by the skills of safety? Well for one thing, we're talking about learning to find the emergency escape doors and windows in a building like this one. We tried to do that tonight. From now on it will probably be in the back of your mind when you enter an unfamiliar building.

In other words, training your mind to think safety is one lesson. Another is carefulness and common sense. By being careful and using your common sense, you're not likely to get hit by a car while crossing the street. Still, a lot of kids are killed every year because they thought they could beat a car. Others die in accidents around the home that could have been prevented with a little more forethought. Still others get trapped in their burning homes, partly because they hadn't planned escape routes.

Safety is not the most exciting topic in the world, but it's a vital one for all of us to learn and to pass on to our younger brothers and sisters. Boring or not, the skills of safety are important. They may save your life or that of someone you love.