shf happens on the road: Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
July 28, 2010
by shf
Buffalo Gap National Grassland, SD (FASTLAUGH.com) — Note to the South Dakota Department of Transportation.
Hey there, SDDOT…
One afternoon recently, a somewhat startled traveler on Highway 44, just west of Scenic, SD in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, was driving through that vast, undulating grassland and wondered aloud, “What the hell, South Dakota Department of Transportation?”
The somewhat startled traveler had been pondering the fact that every time the grieving family and friends of Lloyd Looking Elk drove by his roadside memorial at the base of that beautiful hillside in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, how truly grateful they must be to your fine department for so gently and compassionately reminding them of their loss.
Evidently, state-sponsored signage that callously jeers “Why Die? – X Marks the Spot – Drive Safely,” is South Dakota’s masterful solution to the epidemic of vehicular deaths in Indian Country, a good many of which are alcohol-related.
You’re certainly doing a wonderful job with this awareness campaign by keeping SDDOT’s sign painters and installers very busy these days — and with long-term job security for them too. Good for you guys!
The somewhat startled traveler observed, tragically, many dozens of these “Why Die?” signs scattered about the highway shoulders, ravines and hillsides throughout Buffalo Gap National Grassland, and the adjacent Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Those many utility crews being paid to repair those many shattered telephone poles along your highways seemed to be one of the major economic activities taking place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that recent afternoon when the somewhat startled traveler passed through.
Meanwhile, literally just moments south of Pine Ridge, across the state line in Whiteclay, Nebraska, a law enforcement officer comfortably hunkered down in his air-conditioned cruiser awaiting one-mile-over-the-limit speeders, while several locals — presumably from both sides of the state line — lay drunken and sprawled face-first on the hot ground nearby.
Thanks so much, SDDOT, for providing a somewhat startled traveler with a very powerful — and very disturbing — South Dakota memory.
Bonus points awarded to Whiteclay, Nebraska!