In Rhode Island roadside makeshift memorials are common. The memorials are usually located either on a roadside to memorialize a fatal car accident or in some neighborhoods, to memorialize victims of violent crimes occurring on our public streets. This is a hotly debated topic with some states in the US following the trend against such memorials; citing reasons such as using public property for private use, separation of church and state (due to the use of crosses) and others see the memorials as a distraction.

We all memorialize death in our own way, In Rhode Island, roadside memorials are what we do to mourn those that pass suddenly and violently in a public place. We proved our acceptance of roadside memorials when the Station Night Club …show more content…
These words have come to sum up our mission: “To be lost and forgotten – to be abandoned – is a shared and terrible fear, just as our fondest hope as we grow older is that we might leave some part of us behind in the hearts of those we love and in that way live on. We may not be able to change what has been but we certainly can change what is. Help us to give the victims the only gift within our power, a gift we wish desperately for our loved ones, a gift we all want . . . TO BE REMEMBERED.” (Station Fire Memorial Foundation)

For these reasons I am, a pro-roadside memorial person. The only issue for which I can sympathize in the anti-roadside memorial side of the argument; is to agree these temporary memorials are just that; temporary. However, how then does a state set an arbitrary date as to removal, such as a week or mouth, etc.? I think if we are to allow temporary memorials; once a permanent memorial is established (within a reasonable time); whether is a burial and there is now a grave, or a cremation and now ashes remain, that is the permanent memorial and the temporary one should be