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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 18, 2005 What if � A cautionary exercise In the heated aftermath of our most recent vehicular tragedy, I'd like every student at AHS to give a few moments of serious thought to the following scenario. You wave goodbye to your parents as they take off in their car - all smiles and high spirits - for an anniversary dinner. They never come home. As you're talking on your cell phone or playing a video game, they're bleeding to death in the tangle of metal that used to be the family car. Once you get the word, you rush to the hospital only to discover it's already too late. All you can think about is the day before when you told Mom to "get a life" or Dad to "chill." And now you can never say you're sorry � you didn't mean it. Because some reckless speeder plowed into Mom and Dad when they were only ten short minutes from home. You think at the funeral you've hit rock bottom. You've cried so much you're positively numb. Everybody says they're so sorry and you know they truly mean it, but it doesn't help. Nothing can help. Only bringing them back. You just want them back! Your mind is a home movie you can't switch off. Dad running alongside your first bicycle as you struggle to keep your balance. Mom patiently dislodging the monster splinter your foot acquired climbing barefoot over the back fence. And you realize - maybe belatedly - that they were good people. Better than good. Absolutely the best! Now through no fault of their own, their lives are over, and it's finally dawning on you that your own life is never going to be the same. Because the house is up for sale. Your uncle in Seattle or your aunt in Santa Fe (one or the other) will be happy to take you in � you can bunk with your cousin. He won't mind. Except, of course, you know he will. And it won't be your home � not really. It'll be his. Suddenly that little room you complained was so small begins to look like Paradise Lost. It may have been a closet but at least it was private. A place to be alone when the memories assail you � Like the evening Mom and Dad went off to dinner - all smiles and silly jokes - and some full-of-himself speeder tore through their lives (and yours) as if none of you mattered at all. The point of this story is pretty obvious, I think, but worth repeating. When a driver of any age or sex puts his or her ego above human life, the victim could be anyone. Himself, his best friend, a baby in a car seat. Your sister, brother, lover, oldest friend. Mom and Dad. You � For better or worse the young usually have more to lose. And because of that, reform often rests on their shoulders. If you can't beat 'em join 'em is nothing but bravado - the mindless mantra of a suicidal fool. So the next time some flashy show-off - sober or drunk or high - gets behind the wheel and starts to speed or goof around or even chatter away on a mobile phone, think about this: Who else is on the road? Anybody you care about? Anybody you'd miss? Because they're all fair game to a hot-shot in a car. Nan Schwarz Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Fasa Student Loans Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams