[bigstick]

I think it is sick.

[Keeper]

They allow them in FL but only ones that are made the DOT. They are smaller and round. I can understand them in one way but I personally would find them more upsetting after a while being a reminder of my loss rather than moving on. I have lost a loved one not in an accident but not expected and while you don't forget I don't focus on it everyday

[cpg35223]

I think that, ultimately, they are narcissistic and creepy. I mean, does this mean that we're allowed to put up a memorial everywhere someone has dropped dead? If someone chokes on a steak at a Logan's Road House, do we put up a cross there as well?

Just get rid of the things. I am totally sympathetic to loss, but your loved one isn't the only person who has ever died. Erecting a permanent memorial on public land and expecting everyone else in the world to deal with it for years on end is just self-centered to the extreme.

[Georgianbelle]

If they make the person left behind feel better, they don't bother me. Maybe the sight of a roadside memorial helps slow some people down. I know on the interstate people need something to make them think.

[bluebeard]

I guess I should have a strong reaction to it one way or other, but I don't rally care much. I guess I could see requiring them to be taken down if a landowner requests it.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Georgianbelle

If they make the person left behind feel better, they don't bother me. Maybe the sight of a roadside memorial helps slow some people down. I know on the interstate people need something to make them think.

That's what state troopers are for.

And another thing. Most of the time, those roadside memorials are in fairly innocuous places. I always wind up wondering what idiotic thing the deceased did to get himself killed. Yeah, not the most empathetic thing I've ever said.

[Georgianbelle]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

That's what state troopers are for.

And another thing. Most of the time, those roadside memorials are in fairly innocuous places. I always wind up wondering what idiotic thing the deceased did to get himself killed. Yeah, not the most empathetic thing I've ever said.

I know a guy from Alabama who lost both his daughter on 65. He put a cross on the side of the road. They were his only children, and they were not at fault. They did nothing idiotic, and they did not deserve to die. Does it make him miss them any less? I am sure it does not, but it is not my place to judge how he chooses to remember them, nor is it yours.

[bigstick]

+2 Good points Georgianbelle....

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by Georgianbelle

I know a guy from Alabama who lost both his daughter on 65. He put a cross on the side of the road. They were his only children, and they were not at fault. They did nothing idiotic, and they did not deserve to die. Does it make him miss them any less? I am sure it does not, but it is not my place to judge how he chooses to remember them, nor is it yours.

Actually, it is. If he decided to plant a twenty foot tall granite memorial to them in the middle of the road, that would surely be obvious to you as being beyond the pale. If I were an animal rights advocate and chose to memorialize road kill such as skunks, deer, armadillo, dogs, cats, squirrels, field mice, snakes, skinks, feral hogs, racoons, chipmunks, water buffalo, crocodiles and other sentient animals with foot tall crosses, you would consider it as inappropriate, especially since within a few years the roads would look more like cemeteries.

The concept is public space and appropriate use. Intrusions into public space by businesses and individuals is a form of aggression. It says "MY need to memorialize for MY purposes is greater than ALL of your needs." The person who is dead is dead. They don't get to see it, and might not even want the memorial. I know that if you said "Harry, we are going to put up a cross and teddy bears over the spot where you died, so that we can remember you." I'd tell you that you were outta your mind. Spend a buck on a cancer charity. Give the teddy bear to a kid that needs one. Give the wood to someone who needs heat for the winter. Get counseling.

The fellow with the two daughters wants to honor them, I get that. Honoring the spot where they died is crazy inferior thinking to honoring the places and activities that they loved.

[Newsboy]

The only thing tackier than a cheesy cheap memorial on the site of a fatal wreck is memorializing a loved one with a decal in the back window of your SUV ....