How come all those people who leave flowers and pictures and candles and crosses and crap on the side of the road don't get the same fine for littering as all the rest of us do.
Is it not littering if you place your junk reverently as opposed to just hurling it out the window?
Only you see things in that light.
First off, I don't think I'm the only one who sees it like that, it's just not "politically correct" to say so.
Second, if we allowed "roadside memorials" everywhere there'd been an accident like that, the road would just be littered with them every ten or twenty feet. Driving is a fairly dangerous business, in the aggregate, and we can't afford to have those things all over the place.
Third, road crews have to go out, at some point, and clean up that junk from the side of the road, the same way they have to with litter. Often, strong winds have blown the junk back into the road, where it becomes a vehicular hazard.
All because nobody has the balls to say "No, you can't leave your junk on the side of the road."
It's also a hazard to drivers driving behind those who insist on slowing down and looking at the makeshift memorials instead of pulling to the side of the road.
Politically Correct is not my forte either, however, you must admit that maybe during your daily commute, you see how many? 5 or so? There is the one in Kingston that I know of. There are two on Mt. Rutsen Road in Rhinebeck each over 5 years old and 1 on 9G, that is from the summer.
Besides- chances are that after the snow tonight, half of them will be gone. Smashed beyond reconition.
Why does it really bother you? Its not about safety or rubberneckers, they only slow down for a day or two, then forget.
Are you worried that nobody would put one up for you if you met a bad vehicular fate? George would put one up for you. He can put a copy of your book out there and your sales will skyrocket during your afterlife.
It has nothing to do with "wanting one for myself", I don't. It bothers me because it's a roadside distraction, and it's no better than a bunch of trash on the side of the road.
If you want to put up a memorial, do it on your own property, not on public property.
Ok then-
If you die in a traffic accident, I'll have a shirt made up depicting various essential organs being cleaned off the road by the DPW. It will say underneath the picture "For Derek- In lieu of a roadside memorial." On the back it will say, " Please give 'em a Brake" like you see on the side of the road in a construction zone.
If there's a cemetery near a roadway, aren't the photos, flowers and wreaths just as likely to be a road hazard if they're blown into traffic by gusty winds? Maybe those roadworkers are just doing the same thing as the groundskeepers at your local memorial garden: picking up crap that people leave behind.
I think the main distinction between litter and the roadside memorials is the purpose (or at least the perceived purpose) for them being there in the first place. Someone makes a concerted effort to construct the memorials (for whatever self-serving reason), whereas someone else makes *no* effort to put their garbage where it belongs.
Well, first off, in the case of cemetaries, there are usually fences to prevent detritus from being blown onto neighboring properties, and also they're usually more than like two or three feet removed from the roadside, so that's not as similar as it might seem on face value.
Cemetary groundskeepers get paid to pick up what people leave behind, that's their job, and they collect a hefty fee up front to do it. In theory, so do road-workers get paid to pick up the crap people leave behind - BUT - that expense is, in theory, offset by the collection of littering fines against the people who leave their crap behind. Roadside-memorial litterers don't get fined, so there's no "cost recovery" involved. It costs you the taxpayer money for Billy Bob to mourn his loved one.
Second, you say litterers don't "put their garbage where it belongs"... but neither does the crap put on the side of the road by mourners "belong" on the side of the road. It belongs on their grave, or on their front yard, or wherever, but not on the side of the public road.
My idea:
Exploit the trend:
Let’s start crating these memorials out of actual litter. Cigarette butts, Burger king wrappers, old English 40oz bottles, etcetera.
And we can call them "inspirational Road-side interpretive Found object Memorial installations." I.R.S.I.F.O.M.I’s
Get a healthy "National endowment for the arts" grant. And live happily ever after. (Or at least work free for a year.)
Just a thought.
In Los Angeles the problem has been that some families have created permanent memorials by installing crosses and the like. A couple weeks, fine, but at some point it has to come down.
Derek: But, the mourners think it "belongs" there. They're not over the death of whomever, or are otherwise emotionally incapable of dealing with it, else they'd no longer be mourners. Traffic accidents are a special case re: death; they're sudden, unexpected, and (of course) final. Like murder, suicide, a freak brain tumor or something like that. These people had no chance to prepare for the death of whomever.
Some people are given ample time to understand and prepare for the circumstances surrounding a loved one's death. I'd bet money that it's not these better-adjusted-by-circumstance people who are building the roadside memorials.
I definitely agree that the proper place for homage, memorial, etc. is not on the side of the road. But people suffering from an unexpected loss are often irrational, self-consumed, and don't generally give a shit about where things "belong" or are "proper".
I guess my point is that these people in pain should be afforded a little more compassion and flexibility from those of us outside the situation. Why would anybody consciously deny someone else an attempt at comfort?
Mark: I actually had a similar, funny thought on the way home from work. I could build a beer-amid of crushed Natural Lite cans in front of a white, wooden cross on the side of the road somewhere. If confronted by the authorities, I would explain that it was a memorial to my late father, who was an evil drunk. Complete memorial/litter combo action!
I always thought the reason people create road side memorials was because they were too cheap to get an actual grave site and left the body for foraging wildlife.
(Yeah, like the spirit of the loved one really wants to hang out on the side of the interstate for all eternity. Oh sure, it might be fun at first, but after a few centuries of playing "slug-bug" things get old really fast.)
And why is it that apparently only Christians get into car wrecks? You don't see too many Star of David's out there. And why are they always on a straight stretch of road and not on curves?
Not an original thought, but a humorous one. :)
I'm not sure about the situation in the US, but in the UK people never really used to do the roadside memorial thing. However, just before I left 5 years ago to live in Spain, it was getting increasingly popular. I think Princess Dianas death spurred a lot of it on, and now it seems that if a loved one meets tragedy on the road, everyone who passes must know about it. I, personally, think it's in bad taste. It's a private issue, and should not be advertised at the scene of the accident. I know if my wife or children died on the road, I would not find a lot of comfort in having people leave wreaths etc.
It doesn't happen much here in Spain either. Even the Madrid bombings have been mourned in a sensible way. At the rail station, there is a computer set up where you can leave you condolence messages. Far more apropriate than flowers and notes. I know you can't very well do this at the roadside, but I agree with Derek ,although not on the litter angle, more on the "why"? angle.