I cannot contemplate the idea of forgetting what our ancestors have meant to us as their descendants; but more importantly what they have meant to our country's very being. They may be unrecognized by name, but the spirit of our forefathers lives in our daily lives, the gave of themselves to make us free to carry on our daily lives with freedom, dignity, and space to grow in.
Each of those who has gone down to his/her final resting place bought it dearly; with blood, sweat, tears, fears, joy, and hope. Their hope was that we, all who came after, would know a better life, through their sacrifices.
I protest the desecration of their resting places, and the destruction of so much history. Can a descendant go to an old gravesite (some from the very birth of our nation), wipe ones hand across a stone (many of these are lost), and look upon that piece of sod, asking in our hearts what they were like, what their lives were like, and what their dreams were when death came for them.
If these places of sanctity are destroyed, to make room for shopping malls, parks, homes, and businesses, or GOD FORBID, highways; where are we to turn for the peace and humility of communion with these, our honored dead.
An acre, or more of ground, sold or contributed, for the use of our ancestors' final resting home cannot be such an inconvenience to the building of a newer, more modern, and vastly overcrowded United States of America. Are we to jsut move over and allow anything to take from us the one dignity left to us, a sacred place of rest. Does this mean that as we approach death we must make arrangements to give up our own plot of soil. Hey, today we pay huge amounts for our six foot plot of ground. Are we paying for it only to have it come under the heading "Sorry Sir or Madam, but you are in our way, we need this place so the living can have their shopping malls or high rises. Whoa! I protest! I wish I knew where my ancestors lay, that I might visit them. Have they too been moved to a multi-storage facility? To allow our cemeteries, family plots, Indian gravesites, or the lone grave of some forgotten man/woman/or child to be desecrated in this manner speaks ill of us as a people. Are we to build a crumbling society on the bones of our ancestors?
I protest this.
Sincerely,
A Descendant of America's Pioneers and First Settlers
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