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the constitution is used by LIVING people. what kind of foolish analogy are you making? the topic is utility, not age. when i am dead, i would like to be cut up my medical students to study as i will once again, even in death, serve a purpose for society. i am not about ego stroking or writing resumes on a gravestone for an afterlife while taking up space the living could use.
Turns out, cemeteries are for the living...too. It's a place to grieve and visit, if you will, those that have precede them. As they get very old, they take on a historical element. If we thought like you did, Arlington National Cemetary would become cheap, crappy condos and more overpriced housing....no thanks, I'll vote to keep Arlington, exactly as it is... Forever more.
The deceased should receive the utmost respect and reverence. Maybe when you reach that stage, you'll think twice about hat you've said.
Also, burying is more environmentally friendly than cremation.
Actually from a total environmental impact point of view cremation is better overall.
When you consider the chemicals used for embalming and hence the need to contain corpse water by use of certain types of caskets or use of vaults, energy involved in preparing , closing, sealing and maintaining a grave/burial ground. Also factor in the environmental cost of building, transporting and so forth of caskets from maker to funeral home. Finally there is the common complaint against grave yards; their use of land and is it the wisest choice.
Problem with burying the dead is that unless an area becomes abandoned there is a need for more and more land to expand/build new cemeteries to meet the demand. Again only one cemetery is still active in Manhattan and IIRC the late Ed Koch got one of the few remaining sites. Everyone else must go to Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester or wherever.
Cremation is no muss/fuss option. It can be done in a plain wood or even paper type container. When done you have a compact product that can be either stored (above or below ground) or simply scattered to the winds or seas.
Old Europe solved the problem of space in grave yard by only the wealthy having permanent resting places. Everyone else was left in the ground until decomposition had taken place. Then dug up and the bones moved elsewhere and thus freeing the plot up again. Mozart was buried in just such a paupers' grave which has complicated efforts to find all of his remains.
Even royal dead aren't immune to the burial space crunch. The Pantheon of the Kings in the El Escorial will have no more open tombs once the two bodies in the decaying chamber are interred. Juan Carlos I and his consort not to mention the rest of his living family will have to make other plans.
Turns out, cemeteries are for the living...too. It's a place to grieve and visit, if you will, those that have precede them. As they get very old, they take on a historical element. If we thought like you did, Arlington National Cemetary would become cheap, crappy condos and more overpriced housing....no thanks, I'll vote to keep Arlington, exactly as it is... Forever more.
My both sets of grandparents and aunt and uncles are buried in Green-Wood Cemetary here in Brooklyn, I was there today. It is for the living, you are absolutely correct.
Green-Wood has the be the most beautiful cemetary in the world, ponds, hills, etc....................
Turns out, cemeteries are for the living...too. It's a place to grieve and visit, if you will, those that have precede them. As they get very old, they take on a historical element. If we thought like you did, Arlington National Cemetary would become cheap, crappy condos and more overpriced housing....no thanks, I'll vote to keep Arlington, exactly as it is... Forever more.
Greenwood among other cemeteries were built and designed during the Victorian movement of cemetery "parks".
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston was the first of such places and also began the trend away from using "burial ground" or "church yard" to cemetery which loosely translated in old Greek means "sleeping place". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Auburn_Cemetery
The idea was to break away from the old church yards and have beautiful "parks" that not only served the dead (burials) but the living. These places were laid out like a "Central Park" for the dead. The public was encouraged to visit not only to pay respects to the dead, but to have picnics, walks, and other recreations. Such things of course would be scandalous in a church yard.
Given the fascination Victorians had with death going for a picnic in a cemetery wasn't odd sounding as you would might think today.
In rural areas I have often enjoyed cemetery walks. Best were Provincetown and Truro (Cape Cod) where some of the graves go WAY back.
Not so much in Manhattan though with the exception of St. Paul's Chapel (Broadway and Fulton where the grave names are a roster of the colonial history of New York and the U.S.)
Nice stroll if you are in the area.
I saw a Chapel that has a very small graveyard..💀..what caught my eyes were the tombstones.
How old they were people were sitting and some eating. It was like being in the museum, the park
at the same time. But in a tiny space I think it was St. Paul's Chapel in Manhattan..⛪.. This was interesting.
I think what your wrote was adsolutely horrible.
Not every morsel of land needs to have a luxury condo or something built on it.
When these parcels of land became cemetaries, they were not "prime" land.
People that were buried there deserve respect. They were a part of our history.
besides, what do you think we are supposed to do, dig them up and shove them in a hefty bag?
ugh !!
I think what you wrote here demonstrates the point...cemeteries aren't really for dead people, are they?
While I personally agree with your view of burial, LAY OFF MY NEIGHBORS!!
My balcony looks out over a huge Jewish cemetery full of the most peaceful and respectful neighbors I have ever had. There's no way in hell I want to see that change.
When my time comes though, I don't plan to take up space on this planet any longer. I want my kids to cremate me, load me up in some rifle bullets, and take me on years of big games hunts!
Unless you plan only living a few more years, given the precipitous decline of most large game outside the US you'll have to change plans. There won't be any real big game left for egotistical narcissists to shoot and make themselves feel good about. For an hour or so.
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