Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Four Funerals and a beheading.

So in the smallish town I live in there was recently a horrific traffic accident caused, by of all things, three wild teenage males speeding in reckless fashion right after school. This happened less than a mile from the school, and took the life of a complete innocent in the process. The car the teens were in slammed into a school operated minivan, taking the life of the driver of that minivan at the same time.

All four funerals were held today and for all practical purposes the entire student body of the school went funeral hoping. No sooner than one would finish and the other would start. Much talk was head on the local news about the event, and I know it made it into the New York metro stations, on a national level I wouldn't be surprised is it received the same sensationalistic coverage. Great amounts of news, great detail, somber shots of mourners wearing black with yellow ties of ribbons. How sad everyone was, their friends were dead, how terrible the loss of the three young lives, so on and so fourth. The driver of the minivan? What about her? Did they mourn her loss? The tragic end to a life simply because three young males were being idiots?

Hold on here a moment. Yes, I'm sad that FOUR people died so tragic a death. I'm also livid that the teens were so reckless, and stupid, turning several tons of metal, glass, plastic and fabric into a weapon of mass destruction. Four lives ended in an instant, countless others touched, even traumatized, like the drive of the car in front of the minivan who narrowly missed being hit. The driver of this car is a friend and co-worker of someone I met, and based on what was said, this person was seriously traumatized. Now we are up to FIVE people.

Then we have the family's of all FIVE people I personally can count. FIVE families damaged or destroyed. Let's say on the conservative side there are three people per family, now that's another fifteen other people, plus the original five, for a grand total of TWENTY lives irrevocably changed. There were students on the minivan, I don't know how many, their families, and so forth. The total keeps going up.

Sorry, but that is mass destruction. Caused by a car, used as a weapon, even if in terms of someone being an idiot and driving too fast in a reckless manner. A high school student, driving a car? With two other teens? Me thinks the driving age, and requirements for a license are way, way too lenient. How about the idiot parents, mourning the loss of their children, the same ones they allowed use of the car in the first place?

I mean really! Think about it. Those who should be breading and raising children in a responsible fashion are choosing not to, everyone else however . . . I don't care about your precious schedule, and how much easier it is FOR YOUR BUSY life if the kids have a car. They are too young to appreciate the responsibility most of the time, too wild and hormone fueled to understand what it means. So they die, they kill people, everyone is sad, and they talk for hours about how good these kids were, and how much is lost cutting their young lives short.

Grow up! These children are murders. They took a lives. If they'd lived they'd be facing jail . . . Since they're dead we put them up on pillars and talk about how good they are???

Just my two cents . . .

So to add icing to the cake, my sister calls yesterday because on this day of funerals and such, there was a horrible murder in the same town. She called to make sure I was okay. Yeah, just staying out of trouble I said. Later as I was thinking about the day it came to me;

Four funerals and a beheading!

What's that saying? If it bleeds it leads?

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