Coalition To Protect Maryland Burial Sites
President's Message for Spring 2009
President,
Melvin Mason
“Show me the manner in which a
nation cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical
exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws
of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.” – Sir William Gladstone;
"Show me first the graveyards of a country and I will tell you the true
character of the people." - Benjamin Franklin; “When a person is born,
we rejoice. When they are married, we celebrate. When they die, we
pretend nothing happened.” – Margaret Mead; "Go West, young man!"
- Horace Greeley (John Babson Lane Soule).
How do these sayings connect? They all speak to
burial sites and society. They all speak to preserving society. The
Gladstone and Franklin quote tells of how a society should treat their
burial grounds. The Mead and Greeley quotes indicate how society reacts.
As a society we should respect and revere the
sites where we bury our dead. In reality, today's society has evolved
to the point where we pretend they have no graves and in our outward
expansion, we abandon the sites of our ancestors for new or different
homesteads.
Another quote that is bantered about on popular
TV by the CSI crowd is that they "speak for the dead".
The question the Coalition is asking is, “Who
speaks for the burial sites of the dead?”
As graveyards and burial grounds and cemeteries
evolve and fill up, they often become neglected, abused, lost, and
forgotten.
It is up to us to care for the dead, to present
the true character, to ensure we know that something happened, and, in
the ever moving society, we go west and remember what we left in the
east.
We speak for the graves of the dead. We carry
the torch to ensure the burial grounds are located, cataloged, and
preserved.
We rely on individuals and groups of individuals
to take up the mantle of cemetery protection. The Coalition will
endeavor to provide guidance and resource assistance to those groups.
Let us all join together to prevent the
wholesale destruction of these valuable societal resources by
developers looking to maximize the commercial aspect of the ground; the
wanton destruction of grave sites and markers by vandals and hate
mongers; the abandonment of care by uninterested caretakers or because
the site is unprofitable.
The Coalition is not able to work directly in
the sites, there are too many sites and too few of us. We can help
those that want to step into the role of conservation and preservation
of the sites with guidance and support we can offer.
Let them be not forgotten by our actions.
Melvin
Archive of
Presidential
Messages
Coalition To Protect Maryland Burial Sites, Inc.* P. O. Box 1533*
Ellicott
City, MD 21041
This site is maintained by Jeff
and Diane Nesmeyer
Copyright 2000-2009
[Coalition Courier]
[Annual Meeting] [Home]
[Directors and Officers] [Links]
[Events]
[Membership] [News]
[Threats] [County
Pages] [Legislative
Update]
[President] [Periwinkle]
[Items for Sale] [Volunteer]
[Objectives] [Laws
& Regs]