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Roadside Memorials Essay

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Roadside memorials are seen on the side of a street or highway often times after the passing of a loved one in a car accident. While a grave marks where a body is finally laid, the roadside memorial marks the last place where a person was alive. The memorial is usually kept up by family and close friends and is decorated with flowers, messages, and a cross or plaque. However, often times controversial, these families believe that their moral authority to remember a loved one trumps any governmental regulations set in place.
While they have been recently popping up throughout the Western world, they do demonstrate cultural norms through the materials left behind at the memorial site; often times, they replicate structures similar to ones …show more content…

Roadside memorials often times do this because civil and governmental bodies do not allow the memorials to take place. Governmental authorities view the road as a public space and it is their duty to ensure that the roads are safe and can view erected memorials as potential distractions to drivers. There are civil bodies that allow them appear- but only when they are regulated. However, to some families, these ‘limited’ memorials are not accurate representations of their feelings and how they want to honor the deceased loved ones. Within the past five decades, numerous things have perpetuated this change from the conventional into the newly popular roadside commemorative methods. Whether it was the counter culture and civil rights movement of the 1960’s or the gradual distrust in government, more people feels as if their moral authority trumps governmental superintended rules. Although civil bodies want to confine the size and amount of time a memorial is up for, the grieving families do not see the purpose of having such restrictions. In some ways, these memorials can be seen as a performance focus for those who visit. Although there are not literal stage performers with music and lights, the way the memorials are carried out reflects those who died-and the ones he or she is survived by. The focus of these shrines is to commemorate a fallen loved one or friend. While memorials are commonly adorned with pictures and personal items, the way

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