Two Wrongs....

Eighteen years ago, my Grandma Dorothy was killed in a tragic car wreck. She was hit head-on by a tractor trailer that crossed the center line and was driving in her lane. At the time, the driver of the semi was not drug tested, which was an oversight, but evidence seemed to indicate that he was neither high nor drunk. (I'm not going to delve into my belief that any party involved in a fatal car accident should undergo mandatory drug testing here, though.) The punishment meted out by the law? A relatively inconsequential ticket for driving left of center.

For the past 18 years, I've frequently questioned whether or not his punishment was stringent enough because, after all, he took the life of one of the world's most beloved women. It's taken me a long time, but I've finally realized something: his punishment wasn't the traffic ticket he received, but rather the fact that, for the rest of his life, he'll have to live with the knowledge that his inattentiveness killed a sweet woman.

So, how did I come to this conclusion all of these years later? Well, earlier this summer, there was a horrendous accident on the Will Rogers Turnpike in northeast Oklahoma, in which a semi driver's inattentiveness killed ten people. After much testing and research, the media has reported that the accident was solely the fault of the truck driver, and, today, he was charged with ten counts of negligent homicide. I've spent the past couple of months thinking about and reflecting upon this situation and comparing it to my grandmother's accident.

This truck driver is an older gentleman. He very obviously made a horrible mistake that resulted in tragic consequences. But is it necessary to charge him with such a crime? Just like the driver who caused my grandma to die, I truly doubt that this man woke up one morning and decided to intentionally kill these people. I would imagine that it truly was an accident; what I cannot imagine is the amount of grief and guilt that this man must carry with him each day.

Sadly, no legal charge will bring back the lives that have been lost in these two accidents. And while I don't know any of the individuals involved in this situation, I can say that, at least in my grandma's case, the mental anguish that the truck driver has to suffer is more than punishment enough for him.

(Note: in cases where people are drunk or high or doing something completely stupid, like running from the police, and cause accidents, I fully believe that they should be prosecuted to the highest limits of the law.)

A Gentleman and a Jerk

All day, every time I've turned on the news or browsed the Web, I've had stories, videos, and image's of Kanye West's little uncalled for temper trantrum that he threw last night at the VMAs, thrown at me. I've never been too big of a Kanye fan, and definitely am not now. His little childish display was, I believe, solely to garner more publicity for himself. Quite frankly, I don't care if I ever hear another of his songs and want nothing more than to see him fade into oblivion.

Conversely, I just flipped over to a news Web site and saw the news that Patrick Swayze succumbed to pancreatic cancer this evening. He was such a huge part of my childhood -- even today, I still can recite practically the entire script of Dirty Dancing. As a child, I was more interested in the fact that I thought he was "cute", and not in the fact that he truly was, by all accounts, one of the good guys. You never hear anything bad about Patrick Swayze -- he appears to have been a truly, genuinely good guy.

So, here's what I would like to see happen: let's get Kanye West out of and off of the news -- FOREVER. Let's let him just disappear and no longer get the attention that he so desperately wants. Instead, let's focus on some of the good guys -- guys like Patrick Swayze -- or girls like Taylor Swift. Let's focus on the decency in humanity, not the jackasses.

Carefree Summer Days

As a child, I loved summers -- the endless days filled with art classes at the Stone House, swimming lessons (which I truly hated), homemade popsicles, the scent of chlorine as we spent hours at the pool -- I truly believed that summers were magic. As an adult, the magic of summers hasn't really resonated within me -- until last July.

Last summer, Jason asked me to spend a week and a half with him at Grand Lake. I initially hesitated because I HATE camping, but I soon said yes because I knew it was something he really enjoyed and I figured it was a good way to spend some time with my favorite guy. Well, I soon figured out that he wasn't meaning camping. Instead, he was meaning long, amazing days spent at an awesome house on the lake (complete with air conditioning, wifi, and nearly anything else a girl could want), playing on the boat and waverunners, and spending sultry nights swaying on the dock. The time I spent at Grand with Jason and several of our friends was relaxing, rejuvenating, and, in a word, amazing. And I was lucky enough to go back this summer.

Spending time at Grand has again made me love the days of summer. In life, it seems like we all have to put up with so much stress, and, honestly, just plain crap nearly every day, that it only seems fair that summers can still be magical.

I got home from my Grand this evening, having spent four days there to celebrate the long Labor Day weekend. I'm sunburned and exhausted and am not really looking forward to returning to the daily grind again tomorrow, but I'm so relaxed and content. Sure, I'm a little sad because it's September, which means the end of the summer, but I'm still very happy and eternally grateful to Jason for giving me back something that I didn't even realize I was missing -- the joy of a completely carefree summer weekend.