Have you seen the click-it-or-ticket campaign? The one where, if you don\'t buckle your seatbelt you get ticketed? Didn\'t take it seriously?
Today, at 5:30 am, a college boy who grew up in our small town and went to school here was driving down the road in his truck. He took a corner too fast, and his pickup rolled. The pickup landed upright, but he wasn\'t wearing his seatbelt, and was thrown from the truck and killed. A policeman found the body at 8:00 am. He was heading home, to our town, to be with his family for Christmas. His mother used to have two sons, now she only has one. She teaches at our school, and, it being a small school, the news spread quickly. Needless to say, the entire faculty and student body was bawling. Why? Why would anyone bawl over a big jock? Because he was the most kind-hearted, un-jockish big jock ever, and everyone knew him. Now he\'s dead, he\'s the fifth death in his family this year. Nobody should die that young, and over such a preventable thing. It takes three seconds to fasten your seatbelt. There\'s no excuse for not taking three seconds out of your time to do this...

Well it is his fault.He did not put his seatbelt on.He should have known to put your seat-belt on first before you drive to where you\'re going.

Perhaps so, but you didn\'t even know him. What he did was foolish, but there is no need for you to be callous and cruel about it.

Cruel?Look,Everybody always has to put their seat-belt on.I\'m not being cruel.I\'m pointing out what he should have done first before driving.

Pfft. If he didn\'t think about it it\'s his fault. Simple right? He might have been a good kid and stuff but their\'s nobody else to blame...

Y\'know I don\'t mean to be insensitive but I\'ve heard way too many of these stories to be effected by them. He died in a car wreck, if he didn\'t buckle his seat belt, it\'s his own fault.

Also I personally don\'t take the campaign seriously. I personally always wear my seatbelt but isn\'t the huge risk of dying enough, they don\'t deserve to pay a fine too, come on.

[font=Trebuchet MS]I\'m not sure I can actually believe what I\'m seeing here. I mean, people are saying \"there\'s no-one to blame but himself\" and \"this doesn\'t really affect me.\" Is it just me or are those statements just cold?

Feel free to correct me, but I don\'t recall anyone blaming anyone else for the death of this person. It was someone Shadowfire knew personally, and wanted to let everyone know the benefits of fastening your seatbelt: living longer. He made a mistake, and he felt the harsh punishment. No-one else was blamed here, so I don\'t know where you people are getting off by saying there\'s no-one else to blame. It\'s really cruel and uncalled for.

As for this not affecting you, sure, you hear stories like this all the time, believe me, I know, but if a story doesn\'t affect me, I don\'t go out and say \"Oh, well I\'m completely unaffected by this story of someone losing a loved one.\" Forgive the blunt nature of my statement, but if you have nothing better to say, then don\'t waste the time of the people who -do- care.

I mean really people... did the winter turn your hearts this cold? Especially this close to Christmas?

I\'m sorry about your loss, Shadowfire. My condolences to you and the family. He sounded like a wonderful person. I hope you all can still have happy holdiays, even through this.[/font]

It isn\'t just you Keaton. I don\'t know why I didn\'t see it before. People...just see things...differently...

...People here are being cold. This isn\'t the first time. The loss of life seems to mean nothing. I\'m ashamed of many of you. To see how bitter you\'ve grown...

I. Don\'t. Want. To. Hear. Anything. Else. From. You.

This isn\'t just some \"Who\'s to blame\" thing, THIS IS A HUMAN LIFE!

I don\'t want to talk to any of you cold-hearted bastards. I think I\'ll spend time with some of the other people on this board. You know, the ones that have a heart.

[Edited on 12/23/2004 by Mega X.exe]

This is no more about the lawfulness of the concept of click-it or ticket than it is about who\'s fault it is. The point is, this is a warning to those who are out there and don\'t realize that this could be anyone. If you think this doesn\'t affect you, you probably haven\'t realized that the same thing can happen to your parents, friends, or even some of you. Allow me to give a few examples:

When I was 7 (I think it was 7), I was in a car crash coming home from visiting the woman who was to be my stepmother. My father, because of his idea that \"this won\'t happen to me\", never wears his seat belt. It was raining that night, the road was wet and we hit the turn too fast. I was fine, because I always wear my seatbelt. My father however...

My dad was thrown out of the car. Not just around it, he was tossed out of the car, through the driver\'s side window, and a good 7 or 8 feet towards the trees we had crashed into. He broke an arm, 4 ribs, and had numerous cuts all over his body from being tossed through glass. He was taken to the hospital, where he stayed for several weeks before getting a cast on his arm for another few months.

Now tell me, all you little cold-hearted people, do you really mean to tell me that everyone you\'ve ever ridden in the car with wears their seatbelt? That every one of them has the good sense to buckle up and take their attention away from whatever they\'re doing for 3 seconds to do so properly? I\'m willing to bet not. So, unless you live in a perfect world, this message is trying to save some of you from having to experience the same grief that Shadow or others like her have suffered. You really want to stare at a loved one\'s mangled corpse on the side of a road before you come to the realization that, \"Oh yeah, maybe they should\'ve worn a seatbelt...\"? You want to live with that sort of guilt or grief? Fine. My only wish for people who can\'t seem to get this is that you\'ll be the one who\'s gone, so we won\'t have to listen to your appologies. You\'ve been f%$#!@g warned, already.

Shadow, my deepest condolences to both you and the family of the boy. I cannot begin to fathom the grief that they or even you must be experiencing, merely attempt to comfort you as best I know how.

EDIT: Meh, my additional appologies on the confusion of your gender. I blame it on my supposed ADHD. It\'s rumored I have ADD, but I think that\'s a load of-- hey look! It\'s a chicken! Wait, what was I saying?


[Edited on 12/23/04 by Serpentarius]

Psst, Shadowfire is a girl. XP

Anyway, that sucks ass. =/ *hugs n\' cookies*

I know what it\'s like to lose someone you know. ><;

To everyone else: Dude, why the coldness? How would you feel if people treated you that way when you died. \"Oh, it was his fault that he got sick.\"

To those of you who don\'t care: I can see that it may have been a mistake to post this on this board... My apologies for taking up the precious space. I was only trying to convey the fact that this can happen to anyone, no matter how kind or cold-hearted you are.
To everyone else: Thank you very much for your kind words. It is a great relief to me to see that there are still people out there who care about the lives of their fellow human beings.

Don\'t apologise. It proved that wearing a seatbelt does help. It\'s just that others are too dense to see it. They can\'t see past \"Someone I know died\". I don\'t put it down to cold-heartedness, I put it down to stupidity. After all, it\'s only human to not grieve for someone whom we did not know about until we were told.

Well, the big problem is that as we all know, it\'s hard to greive for someone you didn\'t know. However, my symapthies go out to you and his family, Shadow.

I guess even if you are all stating good logic, we must think of Shadow and the family\'s feelings. I\'m sure Yassar Arafat\'s family wasn\'t so keen on talking of his faults when he died... Yeah, I know, that\'s a horrible comparision.:(

I don\'t believe that anyone was debating that point.



Gee Air, I love you too.



It\'s a lot like how \"they\" can\'t see past the fact that they weren\'t wearing a seatbelt.



I really do see it as pretty cruel.



I understand that, I just don\'t think these people are considering the fact that this is a human life. A person is dead! Does it really matter all that much whether or not we knew him?

WHat do you think this whole topic is about!? I don\'t care what people are debating as a result of this topic, the fact is that this topic was supposed to be about seatbelt awarness!

It\'s true! The can\'t see the whole point in this topic!

I\'m looking at this topic an an anyltical way. The fact that a life was lost through not wearing their seatbelt. It was supposed, no doubt, to put the whole seat-belt thing into preportion.

Maybe it is, it\'s just that they\'re only cruel because they can\'t see the moral of the story, allbeit a true story. Also, they fail to realise that this could happen to anyone in a car. INCLUDING them, so, how can you say \"This doesn\'t affect me.\"?

(BTW, if you hadn\'t already guessed, \"they\" are the cruel/stupid/whatever people who say \"it was his fault etc.)

Many people are dying all over the world, even as you read this. Do you think that it is worth your while or even POSSIBLE do grieve for every single one of them?

I said I can\'t grieve for them. I didn\'t say I can\'t feel sympethy for peole, and I do.

[Edited on 24/12/04 by AirMan]

Psronaly I have to semi-agree with Sage, you are acting like a grade-A @$$ Air, when someone dies it\'s only human nature to mourn and seek consolence from others who you trust, but the way your acting is heartless. And Sage it\'s alittle cruel to say he wouldn\'t care if someone close to him died, all he said was \"I don\'t know him so why should I care\", which of course makes me more then alittle agitated, heck Air, I\'m an apathetic lazy @$$hole of a fox and even I would send my condolenses to the family who lost their son. Sage and Air you\'re both being un-ruley about this. It\'s your opinions not a debate on morales, though if it was neither of you would win. You both are acting coldhearted to each other and twisting words, I admit Air\'s got me angry by saying \"well it\'s just another jock down, oh well\" but let\'s read the post. A KIND HEARTED CARING person died, that\'s a rare breed as you and Sage have shown. Someone who can care no matter what you do to them is rare. If this was just another idiot jock that died I admit I wouldn\'t care. Why? Because the world\'s better without retards. I don\'t buckle up personaly cause I don\'t care if I die. It\'ll get me away from useless fighting like this and all the hate in the world. So before we continue this topic can you, Sage and Air, please sort this out among IMs, because no one wants to hear your fighting, Air your intitled to your opinions, no matter how cold hearted they are, and Sage so are you. But to drag people into fights over conflicting ideas is just wrong, that\'s how most wars start, and how most good friendships end.

You know, this does bring up another really good issue. Whether or not you should post on a topic. Do you have something relavent to add? Do you feel strongly about it? If I look at a topic, and have nothing to add, or am afraid of hurting the feelings of the poster with my opinion, then I don\'t post. Now, if it\'s a spammer, someone breaking a rule, or someone who is insulting or injuring someone else, then, yes, I will probably tell them off. Once again, I thank those of you who care for your compassion, but, I can see now that some of you are incapable of assessing the value of others\' feelings, and I am requesting that this topic be closed before someone decides to toss out some real flame bait.

ummm....hello is any1 still in this board im in mexico so ill post extra slow cause the comps here r really slow:(

Sadly, it is nearly impossible to regulate whether or not you should post on a topic, because it\'s nearly impossible to make a rule about it. The closest relating one is \"Stay on topic\", and almost all of this stuff can be counted as relating to the topic.
Anyways, holiday spirit everyone.
Also, I see what everyone is saying about how we should mourn and give sympathies. I believe this is true. But I don\'t think Airman\'s trying to give off the \"cold-heartless\" impression some seem to see. He\'s just stating that, by logic, some of us might have a hard time rationally giving sympathies. It would be unreasonable to argue this. We can all certainly put our regards out, give our sympathies, and such... however, without knowing him, it\'s bound to happen that calculating logic can rise over sentiments.
Anyways, my sympathies to the family.

umm hello im not sure if im double posting if i am sry oh is any1 here need chatness

Then, please find a more appropriate place to beg for chatting. There are more fitting topics for you to post such things on.

To be honest, I\'m starting to doubt that Sage. He seemed to be a little ticked off about the people who said \"it was his fault\" as well. Makes me think we\'re on the same page, more or less.

Stop trying to sound smart, WTF? I do care. I am posting normal. Why am I an ignorant fool? I do understand the concept of life and I do feel sorry for Shadow who is at a loss. The point is that I am trying to get the point across that this isn\'t about \"Who\'s fault is this\" etc. Too often does the human race look for someone else to blame. I\'m sorry if my logic annoyed you, it\'s just the way I am. If you don\'t like that, then I guess you don\'t like me, either. It matters not.



WTF? I do care for Shadow\'s feelings. I already said that I do. I\'m just not focussing on that aspect of the topic. Everyone else already did and I hate to be repetetive (normally, anyway). If you went and killed someone in my family, or friends, I would be sad, angry and possibly like to kill you. But would some poor family in Ethiopia? Would American Billionaire? Would some regular family in China? Would anyone on this board care? (Other than ones who know me personally, obviousely). I doubt it. I think that sure, people can feel sorry for others who have lost a loved one, and maybe make a little preyer for the dead one, but grieving for someone we have never seen in our lives....maybe you do it a little differently, I don\'t know....is, if not impractical, increadibly difficult to do.

Thank you.



Eh? I don\'t recall saying anything like that. Are you sure you\'ve understood me?

[Edited on 24/12/04 by AirMan]



Kinda, yeah. Although, sympethy is something I feel. I just thing that getting on my knees, breaking down and crying just takes it a little too far. That\'s for the loved ones who knew him. Not me. I\'m getting repetetive, now. Some of you don\'t understand what I truely mean.

[Edited on 24/12/04 by AirMan]

Just thought I\'d make it clear. I never meant to offend anyone.I never meant to appear \"evil\" or \"heartless\".

[Edited on 24/12/04 by AirMan]