Speeding, Callous Drivers Ugly Part Of Nice Community

Just about a year ago, my wife Linda and I chose Spokane as our new home, relinquishing our native citizenships in North Carolina and Texas.

We discovered while traveling through this area that this city embodied community values. After much discussion, we decided to become a part of it. And throughout this tough transitional year, we have found our every expectation realized, from the small-town friendliness of businesses to downright good neighbors.

But in a quick blink of an eye one evening last September, something happened that marred our happiness. Someone drove down our street at a high rate of speed and struck our cat, Sherman, killing her instantly. In that moment, our lives were changed as one of the distinctive personalities in our family ceased to exist.

It could have been a child, an animal or even me, had I been out walking. The car was going so fast I doubt that Sherman could even have judged its speed.

With so many arterials crisscrossing our city, why was speeding through our residential neighborhood necessary? What was important enough to purposely endanger everything in the car’s path?

I’ll never know the answers to my many questions, but that doesn’t matter anyway. They wouldn’t rekindle the spark of life that was snuffed out that night.

That leaves us only to mourn our loss. She was Linda’s little buddy, her companion. I went to work the next morning and returned to the tears of my wife and daughter. Even I went to sleep that night with tears in my eyes, something I hadn’t done since I had returned from Vietnam more than 20 years ago.

Two of our neighbors met us at the accident site and expressed their condolences. They are part of the community we chose for our new home. But so is the motorist who didn’t stop, who probably never even looked back.

My mind would like to avenge Sherman’s death and hate the driver. However, I won’t be manipulated by another person’s callous act and obvious disdain for society’s rules. I only hope that the driver has a conscience which will deliver a reprimand for that senseless act and spare another Spokane family this kind of grief.

MEMO: “Your turn” is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a column for consideration, call Rebecca Nappi/459-5496 or Doug Floyd/459-5466.