December 2021

Constantly, Cars Are Brutal

Destroyed and Ignored Car

Constantly, cars are brutal.

That is seriously the most important lesson here, as the unfortunate whimper, families wait for a first response, and the injured lie on the sidewalk, near what once was their vehicle.

Constantly the cars speed up and will not stop. Constantly the cars feel empty and will not start. Constantly the cars collect and clash into each other like a fist. Constantly the roads twist the car. And constantly, the cars rush and screech, and crash into one another.

Constantly, our cars are brutal. And always, when they are, we repeat ourselves. We recollect ourselves. We hurt and we get injured, we heal and process. And we continue. This is the price of driving. And also, arguably, the noblest expression. 

Constantly, our cars are brutal, and you have no choice but to welcome that as the gamble known as llife. And when It’s your turn, you deal with it.

But what if you always deal with it?

Without a doubt, some young, care-free children can be forgiven for thinking it is always the adults’ turn, moments after the most intoxicated adult in Kentucky saw their pickup truck smashed by the youngest School Bus it has ever known, a 67 kid collision. Without a doubt, the rest of us viewing from a distance, experiencing agony and heartbreak from the safety of our home couches and living room TVs, are allured to believe the same thing.

Sadly enough, our country has multiple disastrous weather conditions. Sadly enough we have a history of fatal car crashes and severe injuries, of being ignorant with these news outlets when we already listen to so many lies from them. Sadly enough, all that, yet ultimately, those disasters are caused at the fault of humans, at the fault of human impatience, of human ignorance, of human stubborness, human greed.

It makes you wonder, though, if sometimes our cars are all deciding on manipulating us into crashing into innocent people, into innocent lives.

After 1988, when a drunk driver in Kentucky killed many youthful children, after 1991, when the road was undrivable in California leading to a massive pile-up, after the double whammy of 2 massive pile-ups in Georgia and California in 2002, leading to 80 people injured and 341 vehicles left damaged, after all that, comes this latest insult.  Another unimaginable addition to the history of car accidents, with the addition of a 133-car pileup in Fort Worth this year.

Constantly, our cars are brutal. To drive around the road’s body, searching for accidents in South Carolina, building traffic in Boston, running from the law in the United States, is to comprehend this in a personal way. It is to recite the constant line, “what if…” it is to call 911, donate dashcam footage, give help to those on the sidewalk and to know, even in the doing, that these great acts of kindness are small to those who really need help, against the attemtion of a people who never seem to learn.

But what are you able to do? As the ethicist put it, you must be the change you wish to see in the world. Even less have we the question that burns the moment: Why are the most guiltless repeatedly questioned the value of their life?

We are holding back our own potential, meaning we continue to do what we always do, always pray and ignore. And observe, shocked by the tenacity, as ignorant drivers do what drivers always do,what they have become so routinely taught.

Recollect ourselves. Hurt and get injured. Heal and process. Continue. And go on to show everyone stubborn ignorance towards driving, despite all the accidents on our roads.