Here I am a mere 5 days from discovering that a close friend of mine is missing on Mt. Hood. I'm at work trying to distract myself with some sports talk radio about my Blazer team, and coming back from some commercial on the BFT I hear a snippet about something with the words "Mt. Hood" thrown in there.

Naturally my interest is piqued even though I know at this point the most I can probably hope for is that the body of my friend and spiritual brother Anthony Vietti has been found and there can be at least some resolution to this nightmare. Instead of anything news-related I gather that there is some sort of discussion regarding the usage of perhaps making locater bracelet a requirement for mountain climbers. I continue to listen and am mortified to hear the impersonal venom being spewed from CiP's and several callers self-righteous mouths as they condemn one of the best people I've ever known as an "idiot", "tool" and several other implications that do not bear any repeating.

I know that Anthony was a very experienced and prepared climber who aspired to climbing "the big ones"; No I can't personally answer as to what reason they did not rent bracelets; I DO know that my friend was not a mentally handicapped person who "deserved to be institutionalized", nor was he some macho man who thought he was above everything. God knows I wish that they had rented bracelets as my world would not now be spinning nearly as much as it is.

Shame on CiP, Shame on the callers who just because they don't know the people make assumptions and don't care about their lives or the people they have affected, and shame on Gavin Dawson for calling in and bringing up grieving mothers and the in the same breath calling their children idiots!

I apologize a bit in advance, I know that perhaps this is not the best place for it, but I needed a public forum to wash out the sickly taste in my mouth.