The Gaudreau brothers were cycling on a road in Oldmans Township on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, when a man driving an SUV in the same direction attempted to pass two other vehicles and struck them from behind at about 8 p.m., according to New Jersey State Police. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said the driver, 43-year-old Higgins, was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

Higgins told a responding officer he had five or six beers prior to the crash and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press. He failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said,

According to court records, Higgins had two prior cases in North Carolina during the early 2000s. The records show he was charged with DWI in 2005 but the charges were voluntarily dismissed due to the officer involved not showing up in court. Higgins also had a speeding ticket in 2001 that was dismissed because of his good driving record at the time.

The irony is that Higgins was an employee at Gaudenzia, a nonprofit drug and alcohol treatment center, at the time of the crash. He has since been placed on leave by the organization. So you know, he knew full well not to get behind the wheel, but he did it anyway because he got away with it in 2001 and 2005.

Footnote: NBC Philadelphia 

The entire NHL community has been grieving since August 29th. Well, almost everyone.

As I said, in a podcast out of 22 members of the New York Rangers only 4 players showed empathy and compassion by taking the NHLPA post and throwing it into their story and then maybe adding RIP or hearts. So many other players from every other team has shown respect to the Gaudreau family. 

The NHL pride’s itself that it’s a brotherhood yet it is far from my brotherhood . it’s only a brotherhood when they’re sexism involved , or homophobia and racism. Most players only pick and choose what they’re going to show empathy towards what they’re going to show compassion for… and unfortunately, a lot of of them are narcissistic, arrogant and completely out of touch with the world. 

The fact that MLB and NFL teams and players were classy enough to have a moment of silence or post about it, and some NHL players couldn’t even take the time to create an Instagram story or post something on TwitterX  shows you everything that you need to know about the league.

It should not matter if they were ever teammates, they even talked off the ice, he was part of the exact league that you are playing in. 

When Kobe Bryant passed away from that plane crash everyone in the NBA showed their compassion and their empathy. Even folks from the NHL, and MLB and NFL. Because it’s not that difficult to take your phone, go on a social media app, and post that. There’s no excuse. 

But it doesn’t surprise me in today society how not even just athletes are out of touch with the world, but everybody’s been out touch with the world.  People hate you for being authentic and speaking your truth instead of being fake and people pleasing. 

People don’t like boundaries, they want to use you as much as they can use you and then when they’re done with you, they just discard  you like you are trash. People also hate being called out, when someone points out said truth. The reason that people get so triggered is because they’ve been living a lie and living a lie is better than facing the truth. And what I mean by that is the fact that people will give athletes an excuse for how they are and who they are. They will give people in their community excuses for how they act, what they say about others, and how they go about their daily lives.

People today have no qualms about showing their insecurity, their jealousy and their envy, simply because somebody else’s light is brighter than theirs. Instead of celebrating those people, rooting for those people, they try to tear them down.

Just yesterday we had another school shooting, and it wouldn’t surprise me if social media played a part in that. You go on social media and people are trying to tear people down, bully other people, and not accept the fact that instead of asking questions about certain things, they judge them like they’re all high and mighty when they’re not even close to being that way. Nobody and I repeat nobody, including myself is better than anybody else. We are all imperfectly perfect.. we all have discrepancies. We all have flaws. And we all have strengths. That’s what makes us human. Unfortunately we don’t treat each other as human beings. 

People today don’t give a rats ass about anybody else other themselves. Of course young people today think they know it all and they have nothing to learn from anybody else because they know it all. When they’re just growing and evolving. And they’re afraid of doing that. Because that means they have to step into their authenticity and step away from having the fake life on social media where people give them reinforcing attention. 

I mean, let’s be real getting attention on social media is kind of fun. I get it. But life was so much easier and different before social media even existed. There’s some positives of social media. You make new friends on social media. You can network with other like-minded business individuals. You can put yourself out there. But there has to be some accountability. And I feel that if somebody has the nerve to try to dim your light, you have every single right to call them out on it. The old saying is true, if you’re gonna dish, then you gotta take it. 

That especially goes for the people that like to stalk other peoples accounts,  claim that they’re not stalking them, but they’re not following those specific people and then they talk about them like they know them and trash them. Lying about me won’t change the truth about you.  

One thing about me is that I will never go through life playing small, being silent, and being accommodating for everybody else.  I will never water myself down to make me more digestible for you. If I trigger you in any sort of fashion, that’s on you. Sometimes those who shine brightly always trigger those that rather live in darkness. 

So if I’m ever a bitch to you, did you forget that I was nice and nice and nice and nice…. Then I was a bitch? 

One thing I’ve learned during transforming my life over the last few years is that me being nice always got me disrespected, ran over and stressed out.  I’m not nice. I’m a good person and there’s a difference. People are afraid to get to know someone like that so they’d rather hate on them first instead of learning who they are because then in turn,  makes you a better person. God forbid we become better human beings. 

We can always learn from others so always be teachable. If you’re not then you’re afraid to evolve and you’re afraid to grow and you’re afraid to learn. 

The one take away I take from Meredith and Johnny’s relationship  from seeing all the photos is that they BOTH posted up on each other. They look at each other in every single one of those pictures with so much love in their eyes which  makes this even more heartbreaking. That’s the type of relationship that I want. That’s the type of relationship that everybody strives to have but sometimes is intimidated to have because it means being emotionally drawn to each other and being vulnerable and today people cannot be those two things. 

If anything, these types of heartbreaking situations are lessons for us to learn from. 

Life is short. It doesn’t come with the a set of instructions. It doesn’t come with the road map.. but it does come with moments that should be cherished and moments that should be enjoyed. We weren’t put on this earth to bicker with each other and fight with each other. We were put on this earth to help each other, to love each other and to realize that one of the greatest gifts is empathy and to understand that somehow mysteriously, we are all connected to each other.