Opinion : To the Editor: What Cemetery Month should mean to all of us

To the Editor:

The month of May in Iowa has been proclaimed “Cemetery Appreciation Month: by the Office of the governor. The proclamation says in part that we dedicate this month to the care of our pioneer cemeteries.

Cemeteries are not just a burial ground but are much more. For some the cemetery is the only record that the person ever lived. It is a legacy. In cemeteries, lives are commemorated, deaths are recorded, families are united, and memories are made tangible.

A cemetery is a history of the community – a perpetual record of yesterday and also a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery is an outdoor historical museum. Communities need to accord respect to cemeteries, families bestow reverence and historians seek information from cemeteries. Cemeteries enrich the heritage of our community and provide a permanent place of remembrance.

A quote from a New York Times Editorial states; ‘We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.” Please look around your neighborhood for the remnants of a pioneer burial site, defined in the Iowa Code as “a cemetery that has had fewer than twelve burials in the past fifty years.” Chances are that there is such a sacred, historic place that needs your attention. Cleaning up a cemetery, straightening the monuments, and rescuing it from years of apathy and neglect is a rewarding experience for an individual or a community service group.

Charles Payton, founder of the heritage and conservation group, Tide Chaser, has said, “Never believe a politician or a bureaucrat who says there’s no money for preservation.” It usually doesn’t require much money to restore a cemetery to a respectable state when caring volunteers pitch in to provide labor. Volunteers have found that working in cemeteries has connected them to their past in a positive and fulfilling way. Contact Steve Meyer, Blairstown, chairman of the Benton county Cemetery Commission or Deb Christianson, Vinton to sign up to volunteer.

This Memorial Day take a walk through a cemetery. Read the names and the comments recorded there. Look at the design and the styles of markers. You may find some interesting things. As we are into remembering the Civil War Sesquicentennial look for those graves of our veterans from the Civil War with GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) markers on their graves. Appreciate the history, art and stories recorded in the cemetery.

Fro more information about how to get involved in cemetery preservation visit the web site of the State Association for the Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries (SAPIC):http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iasapc/.