Pull Over: Dead or Alive?

I live in North Carolina and in this state there are no laws pertaining to pulling over for emergency vehicles. So, when you have a medical emergency and are in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, no one is required to get out of your way. Theoretically you could die in traffic! This is not figurative or a metaphor for the way you feel on the way home every evening in rush hour traffic. This is literal. You might say, “well, I work out and take good care of myself so this won’t cause me concern.”  As silly as it sounds this may be true but what about your loved ones and the possibility of further pain for them because someone on their way to Chipotle to get lunch wants to get back home in time for Parks and Recreation? Frivolous loss of life.

The most disturbing part of this fact is the Southern tradition of showing respect to the dead by pulling over or just stopping as a funeral precession comes past. I have been in traffic that has just stopped without warning because a funeral was coming the other direction. This is not to say that the dead don’t deserve our respect because they most certainly do, but more that the living? Maybe this is an idea most of us have not really thought about. We need to respect each other more than we do and have honor for life and the living as well as for the deceased. You could get caught in traffic on the way to the hospital and die because you did not make the trip fast enough. After you would leave the funeral home in a casket and everyone would let you and your precession past with no delay.
So drivers are willing to stop for dead people but are not willing to pull over so an ambulance can pass? This seems to be the case and I think it is a sad statement of our world. Its like those who will give lots of time and money to the ASPCA but won’t give a dime or a minuet of time to the local homeless shelter. It just doesn’t make sense to me. You will save the homeless stray dogs but homeless people can remain in peril. In comparison, people will pull over to let a funeral pass but will not for and ambulance. So If I am in a casket, come on through but on a gurney is not close enough to death. You can gain respect for living and completing your life but not for attempting to save said life. Dig it?