More insensitivity from the heartland

I'm not sure why I'm posting this. I have started to several times, and stopped. I guess because I'm so disturbed by it. Not as much by the accident, as by the community's reaction to it in the comments section following the article. Hateful, ignorant, shallow, insensitive.... The media is as much to blame for the shallow, "Hype the Hoard" coverage of the incident. Much like the fire article I posted.

So Donna, please put this where ever is appropriate, I just have to put it somewhere.
BB, I hope you get to talk to some media people too!

A 69-year-old man died Thursday after he was hit by a car at Bellemeade Avenue and St. Mary’s Drive driven by a 66-year-old woman police say was intoxicated on illegal prescription drugs.

Police at the scene initially said a possible contributing factor in the accident may have been the large amount of trash and various items filling the car’s interior.

The second paragragh was at the end of the article and became the focus of the comments.
It was the next day before one of the 2 people this woman apparently has left came to her defense in the post below. ...It's always so much more than the hoard.

Posted by KayleesMom on July 25, 2008 at 8:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)

First and foremost I would like to say to Cousin that I am terribly sorry for your loss. You will be in me and my family's prayers. The prayers that go right next to Pat. My Grandmother has known Pat ever since I was a little girl and now Pat is, well family. Pat has always been a little "off her rocker" as i say, but in the last couple years she had lost her only relative close to her and that was her mother. Ever since then she has just not been all there. She has had multiple stints with a couple different types of cancer as well as had to undergo tons of chemo for breast cancer (which may actually not be totally gone). Now let me ask all of you this, if you all had went through the hell that Pat has went through in the last couple years, tell me that you wouldn't be on some type of anti-depressent. Pat only has my Grandmother as well as another close friend that she talks to besides her doctors, attorneys, etc. She is virtually alone which contributes to her depression. As far as her car goes, I do agree that keeping all of those things isn't needed, but in Pat's eyes, in her world which is filled with doctors appointments and the constant reminder that she has lost everyone that is close to her, i suppose she feels like she needs to hold on to certain things because that is all she has controll over anymore. She doesn't decide whether or not she'll have to have surgery again this month and she sure can't bring back those she has lost. So please just remember when you are posting your comments that she isn't an "old junkie". She, like most people I know who are on various medications, keep them in a pill organizer instead of carrying around all of those bottles. So the police do their job and charge her with possesion of illegal prescription medication because she didn't have the actual bottles on her. I assure you (complaintdept.) that her car wasn't commiting suicide and that there aren't any long lost pets or a relative in there. She has no relatives to lose in her car. I will also pray for your ignorance. She doesn't live in that house that everyone keeps mentioning, she lives in a subdivision behind Target. She isn't in the "refuse disposal" business either. As far as Davidm's comment about her "life savings", its not what the contents are that are in there that matter, it's the fact that she has or had the control to say what she kept and what she didn't. It was more of an inner struggle for control over the only she had control over and that was what she kept in her car. Yes it was excessive but that was her decision and we are in America.

Posted by KayleesMom on July 25, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Pat once got a ticket for all of the build-up of things in her car and they had impounded it. Since she has nobody else, my grandmother and I came to her rescue. When the police officer was trying to tell Pat what was going on, she like most of the witnesses in the accident claim, she was disoriented and didn't know what was goin on. Pat gets like that when she gets nervous and doesn't know what is going on. She grew up very sheltered and so having her car towed to Hammericks was a huge ordeal. The next morning after we picked her car up we cleaned some of the stuff out. It was mostly things she had bought for herself and just left in the car, Such as pill organizers. There were also some trash bags that were empty, and i69_4progress, you'll be happy to know that I didn't find Jimmy Hoffa. Pat became upset because we needed to throw some things away or take it to her house because the officer said she had to be able to see because it was a hazard to her as well as everyone else. She started to cry and get very upset because the last thing that she had control over was beginning to have to get cleaned out. So is she a pack rat, yes. Does she have something mentally wrong, besides depression, probably. Never the less, I'm sure we all know at least one person who struggles in life and isn't as capable as others. I assure you those of you who do know someone, I would hope that you wouldn't poke fun at them. They have feelings just like Pat does. So just think back to the things that i have written about Pat and please don't be so judgemental. You wouldn't want people cracking jokes about your loved ones. Pat is part of my family now and no one deserves to be ridiculed for being who they are, whether they're a little off because of things that have happend or whether God made them that way. Don't be shallow, God has the internet!!!

I'm posting the links, but I will warn you, the ignorant comments are quite disturbing. I wish I had not read them.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/jul/24/24web-accident/

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/jul/26/drugslinkedto-crash/