Guest Editorial: Cemeteries - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Guest Editorial: Cemeteries

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  • Before we die, we spend thousands of dollars on gravestones and burial plots expecting our last mark on the world to last forever...
    Before we die, we spend thousands of dollars on gravestones and burial plots expecting our last mark on the world to last forever...

  • Editorials

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    The horrific tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma this week bring back all too familiar memories for Alabamians as memories of April 27, 2011 are still fresh in many minds. When Alabamians were in need
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  • Thursday, May 16 2013 7:20 PM EDT2013-05-16 23:20:04 GMT
    In my editorial on Tuesday I chided our legislators for being the last state to pass a no-brainer  bill legalizing home brewing.  Today I want to challenge them to be one of the first states to pass another no-brainer;
    In my editorial on Tuesday I chided our legislators for being the last state to pass a no-brainer  bill legalizing home brewing.  Today I want to challenge them to be one of the first states to pass another no-brainer;

  • Tuesday, May 14 2013 7:20 PM EDT2013-05-14 23:20:07 GMT
    Kudos, or perhaps, cheers to the Alabama Legislature for passing HB9, the home brewing bill. Legalized home brewing may not be up there with education reform or prison funding, but it was overdue. 
    Kudos, or perhaps, cheers to the Alabama Legislature for passing HB9, the home brewing bill. Legalized home brewing may not be up there with education reform or prison funding, but it was overdue. 
    •   

Alabama's Abandoned Cemeteries: What to do?

Whether it's the mystery of death itself or our curiosity about the past or just the downright uniqueness of each one of them... most of us find cemeteries interesting.

Yet, according to a special report we brought you last week on WSFA 12 News, some 13,000 of Alabama's 27,000 cemeteries are in need of repair and upkeep.

To have the state maintain these forgotten communities of the past would be very expensive and, in my opinion, not a good idea anyway. We don't need one more of our responibilities transferred to the government so that we can ignore it.

There are any number of ways we can address this problem. Maybe its geneology scout badges, or civic groups adopting cemeteries, or clean up events held around patriotic holidays... there are veterans in most every cemetery. My favorite idea is fourth grade elementary classes using cemeteries as a learning tool in Alabama History.

If cemeteries were more important to us, and they should be, we would visit them more often, and maintain and protect them.

Mark Wilder
Internet, Operations and Programming Manager for WSFA 12 News