Taking Responsibility: Saying No To Danger (1986)

[Music] maybe you and your friends are a little like our three pigs you live in the same neighborhood together you go to school together and you play together and maybe you're a lot like each other in many ways except when it comes to being safe while most of the things around you are safe there might be times when you or your friends come across something that isn't so safe even something that could hurt you a lot you find yourself near danger and that's where you and your friends might act differently maybe you'd be smart enough to say no to danger but maybe one of your friends will would take a chance with danger or maybe another friend would simply go along and do a dangerous thing without thinking to keep from getting hurt when danger is near it's always smart to say no to danger most of the time saying no is very easy to do suppose you come to a deep hole like this although you'd like to take a closer look no one would have to tell you you're near [Music] danger if you fell in you'd probably get hurt badly you wouldn't want that so most likely you'd get away from there fast and stay away but there might be other times when it's not so easy at first to stay away from danger accidents like this happen to everyone sometimes it's hard to stay away from a dangerous thing if you don't know it's dangerous but like everyone you can learn from accidents if something hurts you even once then you know it can be dangerous you don't have to learn a second time and once you know something is dangerous then it's easy to stay away but what if you can't tell if something is dangerous what if you find something that looks like it might be fun to play with but you're not sure it's safe you might wonder what you should do but actually it's very easy to decide just follow this simple rule if you don't know don't take a chance often you can't tell just by looking at something if it can hurt you even if it's something that can hurt you badly so if it looks like it might be even a little dangerous ask an adult about it or just stay away from it don't take a chance here's another kind of chance no one should take suppose your friend is trying out your skateboard but he's thinking about something else he's not watching where he's going and he gets hurt in this case he knew about the danger but he wasn't being careful when whenever you and your friends are doing something that you know can be dangerous you need to pay close attention to it you need to think carefully the whole time if you don't you're taking a chance with [Applause] danger and that's never a good idea but if you're careful and you pay attention saying no to danger is easy so when is it hard suppose you're near a building that's under Construction in your neighborhood you know that places like that can be [Music] dangerous and that makes you want to leave but suppose one of your friends wants to play there anyway your other friend might be caught in the middle and might not know quite what to do if you're the one caught in the middle you feel a certain pressure a funny feeling that could be a danger signal which way should you go that's when saying no to Danger might not be easy one thing that can help you say no is this think carefully about what the danger might really be you know that anywhere there's building construction there are a lot of things to get hurt on bits of broken glass Nails sticking out of boards ladders sometimes Sharp Tools maybe even power tools it's not hard to imagine how someone could be harmed by these things once your friend has thought about the harm he might not feel so much pressure he would probably decide that since someone could get seriously hurt playing there would be just too dangerous and that he shouldn't do it if your friend decided this it wouldn't be easy but he'd be saying no to danger but there are times when it might be even harder for your friend to say no you know that walking on a high wall or fence is dangerous and that if you fall you could be really hurt but suppose your friend wants to show he's daring enough to do it maybe he thinks that others will like him better if he does it he wants very much to show off but he also knows that it could be dangerous once again he's caught between two things pushing him two different ways showing off for a friend and danger this time he might feel even more pressure than before because showing off for a friend might be really important to him again he might get that funny feeling that something is pushing him to do something he shouldn't that feeling is a warning it helps him by telling him that danger might be near and that something needs to be done about it just like before imagination can help too it's easy to think that no matter what you do you won't get hurt but sometimes people really do get hurt and sometimes badly your friend just needs to imagine what kind of harm could happen if something goes wrong and it could also be a big help for him to think of something else to do instead something that wouldn't be dangerous but even with all these things to help there still might be times when it's even harder to say no to Danger suppose for instance you're with your two friends and this time they both want to do something they shouldn't suppose they both want to play someplace that's very dangerous and they want you to do it too you'd probably get that funny feeling again that tells you there's something wrong but but the way your friends feel about you is important you don't want them to think you're chicken but at the same time you think it would be stupid to do something that would be dangerous what should you do first remember that there's nothing more important than your safety your safety is always more important than pleasing other people it's always smart to be safe although one of your friends may like to do dangerous things and makes Taking Chances look smart it doesn't look so smart when someone gets [Music] hurt that's when it's easy to see that doing dangerous things is stupid but how do you tell your friends you won't do something dangerous the best way to do it the easiest way is to say it in a strong voice no if you do that you won't look like someone who's scared instead you'll look like you know what you want and you're strong enough to say say so there's one time especially when doing this is even more important than other times again suppose you're with a group of friends and some of them want to do something very dangerous like playing with [Music] matches you get that funny feeling again that tells you there's something wrong you know there could be a lot of danger but at the same time these friends try to talk you into lighting a match when something like this happens you should think about what your other friends are probably thinking most likely some of them have that funny feeling too they might not want to go along any more than you do they might be looking for someone strong enough to say no no no so if you say no to the danger you could actually be doing your friends a favor in fact one of them might even tell you something like I wanted to say no too but I didn't because I thought nobody else would so if it's difficult for you to say no to Danger sometimes just remember it's the smart thing to do and who knows you might even make a special friend that way [Music] oh [Music]