Remember When People Where Scared to Enter a Grave Yard?

    


    I see this happening to often lately; in my home town of Windsor, Ontario, Canada; there was an article about another graveyard being vandalized in March of 2009. While as a family genealogist and just a person of some conscience, I have never been all to happy to hear about these sorts of things; this one struck home for me. My paternal Grand-father (well step grand-father as I learned later in life) is buried in this Cemetery. I was upset when I saw the story in the paper that someone had brought into work that day. However as I read the story I became increasingly upset. This Cemetery is one of the older ones in our city and the biggest in the city center. It includes three separate sites split by two major roads. After work and before heading to my small group bible study that night, I had to go and check it out for myself and find out if grand-pa was still resting peacefully. I drove in the one end and parked, I could see about 10 toppled or damaged grave stones. I walked over and located my grand-fathers grave stone and was relieved to find it still standing and undamaged.
    I see the degradation of society continues. I think that those that are caught in such an act of vandalism should suffer a like punishment. Namely no name to identify their final resting place. Just a stone that reads something like “Here lies a vandal, who had no thought for grave markers, don’t know who he was, and guess we never will”. Unfortunately this only punishes those left behind, who may actually miss and want to visit them. The main point is there needs to be a real punishment for these individuals. More times then not it involves youth that are run through the legal system and shot out the other side with a slap on the wrist that allows them to go back and repeat the crime again. The old joke about a grave yard being locked because people were dying to get in, takes on a sick meaning when they are dying to get in to cause damage. Do we have to lock them; and then what? How do we, that have the proper reason to be there; go about gaining access? It becomes a long drawn out solution. Best solution caring involved people. Your neighborhood, watch out for it.
    Just my rant on the subject. What’s your thought?