President's Message for Spring 2010
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President’s
Message That Appeared in the Spring 2012 Issue of the Courier
It is a myth that swans sing as they die.
I
believe that my song will be of
bewilderment and celebration. Bewilderment that I didn't get more
accomplished;
celebration for what I was able to accomplish – for what
we accomplished.
For
the bewilderment, I take full
responsibility for not doing more and accomplishing more. The
celebration
belongs more to the Officers, Board members, the
Outreach Committee, and all of
the members who helped further the goals and ideals of the Coalition
since I
became president in 2008. I am proud to have been
at the helm when they did all
that they have done.
Knowing the members as I do, we will continue to strive for that elusive goal of protecting the burial grounds of Maryland.
The big threat to the Coalition is the Coalition itself.
The
Coalition is not self-destructing,
verily, it is suffering from a malady affecting all modern civic
organizations;
the loss of membership, especially
those active within an organization. Robert
D. Putnam, as presented in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and
Revival of
American Community, describes
the reduction in all the forms of in-person
social intercourse upon which Americans used to found, educate, and
enrich the
fabric of their social lives.
Wikipedia
further summarizes the
book noting: “… the act of individual membership has not migrated to
other,
succeeding organizations. To illustrate
why the decline in Americans’ membership
in social organizations is problematic to democracy, Putnam uses
bowling as an
example. Although the number
of people who bowl has increased in the last 20
years, the number of people who bowl in leagues has decreased. If
people bowl
alone, they do not participate
in social interaction and civic discussions that
might occur in a league environment. … This data shows an aggregate
decline in
membership of traditional civic
organizations, proving his thesis that U.S.
social capital has declined. He then asks the obvious question ‘Why is
US
social capital eroding?’ … He believes … demographic
changes have made little
impact on the number of individuals engaging in civic associations.
Instead, he
looks to the technological ‘individualizing’ of our
leisure time via
television, Internet and eventually ‘virtual reality helmets’.”
At
a recent cemetery friends’ meeting
I was asked if the Coalition would accept the assets of a friends’
organization
if the organization had to cease existence under.
The caveat is that those
assets be used for the continuance of the object cemetery.
This
seems to fit into the
original premise that the Coalition would assume ownership of cemetery
assets.
What I balked at was the thought that the Coalition
would be able to fulfill a
commitment to an asset for any duration.
Back
to the bowling analogy, and
the theory that any organization generally has about 10% of its
membership
active at any time; the Coalition has about
90 members, with somewhere between
8 and 13 members active. Sounds about the norm. We, however, have not
been able
to field a quorum for the last two board meetings.
This
is not a criticism of the
membership, it is lamenting the lack of an active membership that can
adequately serve the goals and principles that we have
selected to present as
an organization. And that is indicative of society as we know it.
The same society that lacks the ability to preserve and protect a heritage space also destroys that space.
So
I ask myself, “Why we do it?” I think
filmmaker Naomi Kothbauer’s statement,
in an interview in the February 2012 issue of American Cemetery, stated
in
reply to a question on why she took on the Burr Oak Cemetery story for
her
documentary, parallels exactly why we keep the Coalition alive. She
stated the
following:
“To
remember the contribution of
those who came before us, we wouldn't be where we are without them. How
we
honor people and their memory is important.
Visiting cemeteries provides an
understanding and connectedness – everyone here had challenges and
opportunities just like me, even if I didn't know them.
I want people to have a real appreciation of all cemeteries because it will be up to future generations to make sure that a ‘Bur Oak’ never happens again.”
The Coalition faces “Burr Oaks” on a regular basis.
Often
we are unable to do little
more than offer guidance. What our future generations do with the
Coalition
will be determined by how we set and
promote the appreciation of all burial
sites and how we show our future generations how and why to honor the
memory
and importance of these Maryland Burial Sites.
The Coalition must remain active in the Protection of Maryland Burial Sites and must strive to bring more people into the civic sphere that promotes and provides that protection.
Let us bowl as a league for those we protect.
Melvin
Archive of Presidential Messages
Coalition To Protect Maryland Burial Sites, Inc.* P. O. Box 1533*
Ellicott
City, MD 21041
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and Diane Nesmeyer
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