Page 36 - THE ENDLESS WAVE | Skateboarding, Death & Spirituality

THE ENDLESS WAVE | PART ONE
governor of New Jersey at the time. He was so busy running around trying to get nominated for President that he had yet to sign off on the legislation.
I decided to do something about this situation. I set up an online petition de- manding the governor sign off on the bill. I contacted a reporter at a local New Jersey newspaper to drum up some publicity. Almost 1,000 people signed the petition. Chris Christie (or someone in his office) also must have seen what was happening and in November, he eventually signed off on the bill.
The Parks/Korman bill was a key piece of legislation, but it was born from a tragedy. Tragically, adding more grief to this ordeal is the fact that in the months that Chris Christie sat on the bill, an additional 49 people died in New Jersey from carbon monoxide poisoning in buildings that didn’t have detec- tors. These were senseless and completely preventable deaths.
There are no easy answers when it comes to how to deal with sudden death. It’s been almost 9 years since Noel died and there is not a week that goes by that I don’t think about him. The only thing that comforts me is knowing that the Parks/Korman law will help prevent thousands of more deaths in the dec- ades to come.
Sadly, Ray Korman passed away in 2019. Both are missed.
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