$1 a year, so you never forget.

by laurenolauren

When I was probably 10 I remember watching a documentary on Drunk Driving, instead of walking away learning that drinking lead to serious consequences? I walked away with a different lesson, on how mankind put a price tag on everything and expected everything was buyable or for sale and while this may seem so most of the time, It isn’t always true.

THE STORY:
Robert was coming home from a party too drunk to realize he was too drunk to drive. Being heavily intoxicated he didn’t see the oncoming car that was in front of him he hit it so hard the person driving it, who turned out to be a 20 year old college student returning home to her parents for the summer died on contact. In Court the family decided they didn’t want to send Robert to Prison, that all they ask for, is for Robert to send them a check every year of only $1.
Robert thought wow he got away, but he didn’t. It haunted Robert every single year leading up to writing that check, it was driving him mad, after about seven years he wrote them a big check totaling a life span of 2000 years on earth. The girls family brought the issue back to court saying it wasn’t about the money, they didn’t need a $1 a year or any specific amount of money a year for that matter, they had lost their daughter and they were grieving constantly. They want to make sure Robert never ever forgot what he took from them. By writing them a check every year at any denomination would at least let them know that at that moment Robert was aware he took there daughter and because of him she’s dead. So while he was haunted once a year they were haunted every day for the rest of their lives.

END OF STORY

I’ll never ever forget that story, I’m 23 years old and I still remember it. Robert wanted to put a price tag on the life he took. He wanted to write it off as bad debt and that would be it. The Human race discovered money and now we think we can buy everything and pay for anything. The Dream has a song on his current album called “Make up bag” what the song is basically saying is whenever you upset your girl friend just drop “5 stacks on her makeup bag” basically saying buy her back happy.
I may talk a lot of shit and come across as fairly unreasonable, but that’s just because I want to. I would be cruel and unkind if I said my mother never taught me how important “Empathy” is, Empathy allows you the ability to forgive those who you may have think, have trespassed against you or hurt you. You can step inside their shoes for a little bit and realize that they really don’t know any better do they?

I’m not the leader of a religious army, but the story of Jesus Christ is one of the biggest and best stories of Empathy and poetic justice I’ve ever seen. We should teach our kids and learn ourselves about self respect, Empathy and the love and value of our brothers and sisters who we share this air on earth with.

Im sitting here thinking, this is the fucking problem, this is why we have crime, violence and all this stupid shit, even the fucking oil spill it’s cause a lot of us have no clue about Empathy. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying I don’t love money any less than anybody else, fuck it I probably love money more than your every day “money lover”. But I will never sell myself for less than the asking price, No Sale signs, No Bonus, no mother fucking Deals. I’de rather sit in the show room until my parts rotten.

xoxoxoxo Lauren O Lauren