I do sympathize with the one reader who objected; any parent who has to bury a child lives with it daily the rest of their life.
I have never had any children, so have never had to address the issue on that level. However, I remember the stress my maternal Grandmother (94 years old at the time) went through a little over a year ago when she buried her youngest child -- and only son. True, he was 68, so she recognized her loss wasn't the same sort of experience parents losing a kid go through, but it was rough enough.
Like you, I have been through the experience of "losing" a child in the sense my First Aid/CPR failed to save one (on more than one occasion) when I was a security patrol officer many years ago. I didn't know any of those children, yet they come to mind now and then, and the sense of powerlessness comes back, at least for a little while. And Yessir, it ain't easy, I agree.
You do a fine job and perform an outstanding public service.
"I remember the stress my maternal Grandmother (94 years old at the time) went through a little over a year ago when she buried her youngest child -- and only son. True, he was 68, so she recognized her loss wasn't the same sort of experience parents losing a kid go through, but it was rough enough."
My response to reading the above from another of your readers is this: You don't measure grief by the age of the child. The greatest sorrow of my life was the death of my third daughter, stillborn at five months gestation. She'll always be the daughter we never got to raise, even for a few days. Our other three wonderful daughters are a sometimes reminder of the pain of never knowing what Abigail would have been like to know and love.
I like community service for "children" who are responsible for the death of other people due to the stupidity of the child driver. They need to go to surrounding schools and explain what they had done, with an admission of guilt. Also there should be photographs of the accident to drive home the severity of their actions. The driver needs to explain his faulty reasoning for his actions and the lifelong feelings he will have for causing the deaths of his friends.
I have long thought that it makes little sense to allow mentally and physically immature persons access to automobiles. At the same time I also believe it is hypocritical to pretend we can (successfully) restrict those same person's access to alcohol (or other drugs). Why not switch the ages of these respective privileges? It's a lot easier to keep the kids out of the car than out of the liquor cabinet.
I'm not advocating teen drinking. Really, I'm not. But a drunk teenager without a car alarms me much less than a sober teenager with one. Since we all know that teens drink anyway, often in combination with driving, I'd much rather take away the keys. Let them drink what they want, so long as the most dangerous thing they can operate afterward is a bicycle or the footmobile.
Driving Home a Point - Comments
I do sympathize with the one reader who objected; any parent who has to bury a child lives with it daily the rest of their life.
I have never had any children, so have never had to address the issue on that level. However, I remember the stress my maternal Grandmother (94 years old at the time) went through a little over a year ago when she buried her youngest child -- and only son. True, he was 68, so she recognized her loss wasn't the same sort of experience parents losing a kid go through, but it was rough enough.
Like you, I have been through the experience of "losing" a child in the sense my First Aid/CPR failed to save one (on more than one occasion) when I was a security patrol officer many years ago. I didn't know any of those children, yet they come to mind now and then, and the sense of powerlessness comes back, at least for a little while. And Yessir, it ain't easy, I agree.
You do a fine job and perform an outstanding public service.
Posted by: Mekhong Kurt, Bangkok, Thailand | November 19, 2007 1:55 AM
"I remember the stress my maternal Grandmother (94 years old at the time) went through a little over a year ago when she buried her youngest child -- and only son. True, he was 68, so she recognized her loss wasn't the same sort of experience parents losing a kid go through, but it was rough enough."
My response to reading the above from another of your readers is this: You don't measure grief by the age of the child. The greatest sorrow of my life was the death of my third daughter, stillborn at five months gestation. She'll always be the daughter we never got to raise, even for a few days. Our other three wonderful daughters are a sometimes reminder of the pain of never knowing what Abigail would have been like to know and love.
Posted by: Jennifer, Los Alamitos, CA | November 19, 2007 10:05 AM
I like community service for "children" who are responsible for the death of other people due to the stupidity of the child driver. They need to go to surrounding schools and explain what they had done, with an admission of guilt. Also there should be photographs of the accident to drive home the severity of their actions. The driver needs to explain his faulty reasoning for his actions and the lifelong feelings he will have for causing the deaths of his friends.
Posted by: David from Conway, Arkansas | November 20, 2007 10:33 AM
I have long thought that it makes little sense to allow mentally and physically immature persons access to automobiles. At the same time I also believe it is hypocritical to pretend we can (successfully) restrict those same person's access to alcohol (or other drugs). Why not switch the ages of these respective privileges? It's a lot easier to keep the kids out of the car than out of the liquor cabinet.
I'm not advocating teen drinking. Really, I'm not. But a drunk teenager without a car alarms me much less than a sober teenager with one. Since we all know that teens drink anyway, often in combination with driving, I'd much rather take away the keys. Let them drink what they want, so long as the most dangerous thing they can operate afterward is a bicycle or the footmobile.
Posted by: Samuel, Chico, CA. | November 27, 2007 6:51 PM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on, or post a comment about it.