Collateral Damage

(WARNING picture is guesome. click on image to enlarge)

In the City of Angeles, one of it's winged friends was killed in action.(November 23, 2006).

On this day, sometimes referred to "Turkey Day", or playfully referred to as "bird day", or more traditionally known as"Thanksgiving", a day in which it is a tradition for the president of the United States to pardon the "National Turkey", a small, peaceful, and winged Angelino was not so lucky. (see picture on right). This angelino's life was snuffed out, under the tires of some anonymous car driven by an anonymous driver. The driver probably didn't know it happened.

This killing is nothing spectacular, unusual, or newsworthy, per se. It one of probably hundreds of lives that get snuffed out in similar fashion, hit by a car, and/or crushed under a couple tons of steel and rubber.

However, today, it is perhaps by coincidence that this photographer's eye saw the residuals of this incident, YOU, feathered friend, laying in the street, a fresh kill, on a day referred to as "bird day".

You may have been breathing, with warm blood flowing through your veins and heart only moments before the photo was taken. Your body may have even still been warm.(picture to the right)

Your passing could be called "collateral damage".

Surely, the driver of the car, was probably on a mission to have a celebratory dinner with friends and/or family on this day of thanks. And you, my friend, may have just happened to be in the way, an unintentional victim the pursuit of that mission, just as if you were hit by shrapnel in a military mission intended for some other purpose.

Most deaths, like yours, never make it into the obituaries or get mentioned in the newspaper. Often they are, at best, given comedic generic reference as "road kill". Or the subject may get broached in conversation, in which people may give nervous laughter or cringe just thinking about such a thing. They may reflect on little friends they have lost in such a way and pain and helplessness they felt. There loss may have been a cherished little puppy, kitten, little brother or sister, niece or nephew, son or daughter, or mother or father, or other special friends in their life.

Perhaps this post can serve as giving recognition to your spirit you shared with us while in physical for. And perhaps now your spirit still flies among us as we bicycle, skate, and walk in this land we call the city of Angels. Perhaps your spirit is now free to fly unencumbered by the dangers of being crushed.

(Angel Sculpture description: Angel statute is one of many decorated angels as part of the "Community of Angles" scattered through Los Angeles. This one is titled "Nocturnus Angelus" by Suzi Galloway. May you watch over and protect us as we ride our bicycles, skate, or walk the streets of our asphalt jungle, even the smallest of us.)

This post is in honor of you and all that were lost under the wheel. And it is in thanks to the spirit you have brought to this city. You, indeed, are one of the winged angels of our village. Rest in Peace.

Killed in action November 23, 2006, in a "vehicle accident" on Santa Monica Blvd, 1/2 a block west of Sawetelle blvd. Total number lost, unknown. (MAP)