Anyone Else Think Roadside Memorials Are Inappropriate?

[Liberty1911]

I'm sorry that someone lost a loved one in a car crash, but is that any more tragic than someone losing a loved one to cancer? Can those people set up a memorial on public property as well?

If people want to leave flowers and pictures, and have a place to remember and honor their loved ones, well, that's why we have cemeteries. No need to decorate the public roads. It's not like 99.99% of the people driving by even know who the person was.

This isn't a rant. I'm truly sorry that people have lost loved ones. I just think it's a bit selfish to expect the public roadways should be used for their memorial.

 

[Liberty1911]

Oops, feel free to move this to the break room. I thought I was posting there.

 

[88GT]

I am coming close to hating them.

 

[cosermann]

Doesn't bother me. Good reminders to be careful out there.

 

[wakproductions]

Roadside memorials not only pay tribute to the person who died in a crash, but they can also serve as a reminder to other drivers passing that area which may have a dangerous curve - slow down and drive carefully.

 

[AtTheMurph]

I think it's BS.

Put memorials in the cemetery otherwise we will eventually have the entire roadsides filled with noting but memorials and I don't believe placing personal, mostly religious symbols in a public roadway is right.

 

[No2rdame]

I am not a fan of them, either. As the OP posted, cemeteries are places for memorial, not roadsides. After all, if someone has a heart attack on the living room couch the family still puts flowers at the gravesite, not on grandpa's favorite seat.

 

[Scuba591]

I see them all the time and offer this opinion. Sometimes they remind me of the accident I had to work, leaving the memory just under the surface. It can be hard to let go when I pass by a memorial 4 to 6 times a day headed to another run. I understand the importance for family to remember, I just wish they would keep up the grounds....cleaning up the rotting, rain soaked stuffed animals, and dripping cards that others leave. I think a simple cross is the way to go... Or some symbol that is important to them.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I understand the grief--they don't bother me, per se. I wouldn't do it, if it happened to me. I don't get it, I guess. But if I owned the land, along the road where some tragedy occurred, I wouldn't want a monument erected there.

 

[EvilBlackGun]

Feel free ...

... to ignore them, like a speed limit sign you may not like, but it's there.

I don't believe placing personal, mostly religious symbols in a public roadway is right.

 

[DragonGunner]

A simple cross is ok with me, but I have seen some that go way beyond that, and in someones yard practically.....and the guy that mows has to trim all around it everytime he mows.....Personally if someone in my family died I would not put a memorial or even a cross up there, I would know where it was. My Dad died at home, we didn't put a cross up in the living room.

 

[C.M.Burns]

They are there to remind you how precious your life is. Just be glad that's not you. But they are distracting, making it harder for us drivers to stay alive on those death traps.

 

[K_W]

I am not a religious person... at all.

While they are usually well intended, they are usually of the cross variety, which crosses (no pun intended) the separation of church and state line if allowed to stay OFFICIALLY.

However... the cross with name and date is instantly and universally recognized in correct context as "somebody died here, remember them, and be safe" so nobody makes a fuss, nor should they. In most cases, the crosses are not permanent, are not set in a spot that is a traffic hazard, and not a significant danger in a crash as they are usually plywood or 1x4's. They are not there (99% of the time) to try to convert people, simple to honor the lost.

I have seen crosses, vertical sticks and even a few David's. Only once have I seen a proselytizing message along with the memorial... As long as they are not metal, are not set in concrete, and not blocking view of traffic, I say leave them alone...

 

[Double T]

A person flipped over a bridge, crawled, and suffocated to death from smoke inhalation. Cars drove by and did nothing.

I have no problem with a memorial in that persons place as a reminder to all that no one will offer a helping hand seeing smoke, and a bent guard rail.

 

[Liberty1911]

A person flipped over a bridge, crawled, and suffocated to death from smoke inhalation. Cars drove by and did nothing.

I have no problem with a memorial in that persons place as a reminder to all that no one will offer a helping hand seeing smoke, and a bent guard rail.

The problem with that though is - no one is going to know the specific reason the person died. They aren't going to learn a moral lesson from a wreath with someone's name on it, nailed to a guard rail.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

I don't necessarily think they are "inappropriate", and I think they do serve as a reminder to drive cautiously.

That being said, I never understood how the place of death became the go-to memorial location, whether it be on the side of the road, or on the sidewalk where a homicide took place. In a way, I believe it puts more emphasis on their death than their life.

 

[Fletch]

The title of this thread caused me to give more thought to this subject than I ever have before.

And now I'm done.

 

[K_W]

The problem with that though is - no one is going to know the specific reason the person died. They aren't going to learn a moral lesson from a wreath with someone's name on it, nailed to a guard rail.

My class mate in Kindergarten, Jacob Frayer was killed in a car wreck by a drunk driver in 1991, at the corner of College and Kessler, just south of Broad Ripple in Indianapolis.

For almost 10 years there was a simple yellow bow nailed to the lamp post on the Northeast corner. Every time I saw that bow I remembered what happened and that bow is seared into my memory as a reminder to never drink and drive and someday I will put a yellow bow in the same spot and tell my children what it stands for.

Sometime the meaning is known, long after the memorial is gone.

 

[gungirl65]

Back in the 80's, HWY 27 from Liberty to Cincinnati was littered with crosses. The nick name for the road used to be Highway to Heaven. I can remember once trying to count the crosses but losing track of the number because there were so many.

I don't think there as near as many now as there had been in the 80's. I haven't been that way in a couple years so I don't know for sure.

 

[Manatee]

Some of it is cultural. I remember driving in Mexico on a fishing trip. It was a long trip and of course we were in a bit of a hurry to reach the lake, so we drove at night. It was a very poignant reminder of the dangers of driving with just the stars and the moon and your headlights at high speed on a dangerous road when your high beams flashed on dozens of crosses near a bad corner.

When I see crosses here in the U.S., I sometimes wonder why the death occurred at that particular spot. Was it in winter? Was the road icy?

Life is very short for some of us. And it doesn't hurt to remind others that we are not invulnerable.