. . . Life is funny, and scary, when it gets as arbitrary as that, and there's not a parent in the world who hasn't trembled at the thought that we can't always control Lady Luck. . . .

Speeches & Letters

Connor's Corner

Good afternoon everyone.

And a special good afternoon to Rozann Kraus, Dan Epstein (who, for full disclosure, is also our pediatrician, but so far no swine flu at our house so he's off the hook for now) and the inadvertent guest of honor, Connor EpsteinKraus, without who's bad luck we'd all be doing something else right now. If I knew the driver who ran him down ten years ago, I could wish him or her a good afternoon as well, for without that event there would have been no "Connor's Corner."

I'd also like to thank Sandra Albano from the Council Office who organized this event and the people from DPW who made the actual sign and installation happen.

It's easy, now, to be light-hearted about this whole affair. You send your 9 year old kid out for groceries. He tries to cross the street in a crosswalk- not just any crosswalk, mind you, but a recently redesigned crosswalk aimed at making Huron Village a safer place- and when he steps out into the street after a car stops, another car swerves around and the next thing you know, you're in the hospital just praying that your kid's going to be okay, hoping that his foot can get reconnected to the rest of his body and wondering if your insurance policy will cover orthopedic soccer shoes.

It's every parent's fear, and it became Rozann and Dan's living nightmare 10 years ago.

Fortunately, some accidents are worse than others and, I guess, any accident about which one might joke isn't as bad as it could have been, but this one was bad enough. Connor spent a lot of time in the hospital after the accident, he's had a series of operations since then and I can only imagine the pain and discomfort and inconvenience this whole episode has cost him. As far as his parents go, well we won't go into grey hairs, but I suspect it may have caused some.

And all that, just for a Corner.

There's a joke about a man who gets shot in the chest. He's in the hospital and the doctor says, "You were lucky. Two inches to the right and it would have hit your heart and you'd be dead." The man looks back at the doctor and says, "What luck? Two inches to the left and it would have missed me completely." Connor's accident - actually collision is a better word- was, as many accidents are. A second or two further into the crosswalk and maybe he would have been more seriously hurt. A moment longer in the store, lingering over the candy counter, and perhaps he wouldn't have been hit at all. Life is funny, and scary, when it gets as arbitrary as that, and there's not a parent in the world who hasn't trembled at the thought that we can't always control Lady Luck. And we certainly don't seem to be able to control other drivers- our kids head out into the street and we pray they make it back safely. Events like this wind up being punctuation marks in our lives to help us realize that every moment is precious, and that we should acknowledge happiness when we have it.

Of course, this Corner isn't all about Connor, despite its name. It's also about the law that was named after him, Connor's Law, a law that was aimed at keeping this sort of accident from happening in the future and to preclude the need for more corners being named after kids. As the father of two boys, my biggest fear is that they'll get hit by a car some day. We've had enough close calls, on bikes and on foot, for me to know that our luck can't run forever and I dread the day that we gather for a Robbie's Corner or a Cooper's Corner.

And this corner is about street safety in a much larger sense, about the thought that 9-year old kids ought to be able to go to the store and get back safely, that parents should be able to blink without worrying that their kids will get run down by inattentive drivers. So I thank those of you, especially Rozann, who looked at this horrible accident as an opportunity to make the world safer, not just for Connor or Robbie or Cooper, but for all of us. The immediate result is a state law aimed at making crosswalks safer, but the longer term, and perhaps more important result, is the constant pressure by Rozann to get more of a focus on street safety within our City government. It's an ongoing struggle, and Rozann is pushing it all the time, attending meetings, designing TROMP, arguing that the status quo is not good enough when it comes to keeping all of us safe.

But, at the end of the day, this Corner is about Connor, about the pain he endured, about the horrible moment 10 years ago when his life was changed but also about how he, and his family, used that moment to, in turn, help change the world and make it safer for all of us.

And for that effort, I, and my family, are eternally grateful.