I don't know a better way to come out and say it, so I'll just say it. I cannot stand the memorials that people put up in the location of the death of someone along the road. They are proliferating at a rapid pace, even though traffic deaths are sharply down nationwide. This would lead one to believe that there is death-a-plenty on the nations roads when that is simply, patently false.
If you have been touched by someone you love dying in a car accident, I don't mean offense. I have not been immune to this either. In fact, I believe in the western world, it is rare to find someone who doesn't know someone, or have loved someone who has been seriously hurt or killed in a car accident or some other type of road accident.
But I fail to understand the roadside memorials. Cemeteries are often considered "Memorial Gardens". Battlefields are regarded as hallowed ground in deference to those who lost their lives on that spot. Occasionally, places that were the location of death for persons of distinction are regarded and identified as memorials to those who lost their lives. There are a number of examples of this ranging from Ford's Theater to the 9/11 memorial at the World Trade Center sites.
The roadside memorials of which I write started as improvised crosses or small trellises of flowers. I first remember seeing them about a decade ago. At the first, they came across as, well, makeshift and cheap. They have achieved ubiquity, all the while evolving to become more and more elaborate. The evolution of these memorials is still very much in progress. I imagine this is much like headstones evolved over time. One can see this in very old cemeteries which display simple white marble stones which are so old as to be eroded, to new markers that are as elaborate as the pocket books of the dead could make them. They are far more like statues in a park than grave markers.
On the way to my office in St. Jospeh from Grand Rapids, I pass no less than 7 memorials in Kent and Ottowa counties alone. The most recent to appear is also the most elaborate. It is along southbound I-196 near Hudsonville. There are three crosses and wreaths of flowers in a field that has been graded to a flat area off the shoulder of the road delineated by white painted railroad ties and red cypress mulch.
Whomever did the work took their time. It looks for all the world like a little cemetery right there at the side of the road. But it isn't. It is simply a memorial to people who perished, one could say tragically or at least unexpectedly near that spot. I don't know who they are. I imagine only a few people do, because it would be improper and extremely dangerous to simply stop on the shoulder of a 70 mph highway to pay homage to the deceased. And isn't the purpose for a memorial to stop and regard the lives of those lost?
In our part of the world, where winter is harsh and spring brings on the explosive growth of grass and wildflowers, these roadside memorials become obstacles for the municipal workers who are charged with maintaining the roads we all travel. Over time, it is inevitable that these memorials, not made of resilient stones and other hard-wearing materials, degrade and look tawdry and unkempt and does nothing to honor the memory of the person who passed.
These areas are owned and maintained by the municipalities in which they lie and paid for with taxpayer dollars at the federal, state and local levels. As such, these memorials should be immediately declared illegal and removed immediately upon being erected.
Again, I mean no disrespect to those who have passed away violently, tragically, unexpectedly, too young and full of promise and hope. I just don't feel their memory is served properly by these makeshift memorials. Nor do I feel they provide a cautionary reminder to drive courteously and safely, at least not based on what I perceive as an overwhelming lack of consideration and intelligence by most drivers on the roads today.
In spite of our lack of discipline behind the wheel our accident and death rates continue to decline. This even though the number of drivers and miles driven nationwide have steadily increased decade on decade. Yet, were someone from a foreign land to accompany me on my way to my office, they might be lead to believe our roads are a daily dealer of death and destruction and their very lives hang in the balance.
A proper memorial for people who die on the road would be an obituary that encourages people to donate funds in the name of the deceased to charities and organizations that help raise awareness of road dangers or enforcement of rules and limits on roads that are dangerous. Perhaps saving someone else from a similar death is the best memorial one could hope for under the circumstances.
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