There are differing ideas about the recently proposed ban on allowing dogs in public cemeteries in Starkville. My opinion differs with many, including my friends with this publication, who propose or support the ban.
This is a solution in search of a problem. The Board of Aldermen held its first public hearing on this matter and all of two people were engaged enough to speak about it. One of them should have been me, but I decided to hang fire until the next public hearing.
Cemeteries are fascinating and lovely refuges. The really ancient ones with their variety of headstones and markers such as those in New Orleans are intriguing for the stories they suggest. They have character and presence. They are the subjects of movies and books. They spark the imagination and stir the heart.
I am torn between the conflicting notions that cemeteries are a waste of perfectly good real estate and that they serve as a permanent reminder of our impermanence in this world.
They should not be sacred temples open only to the most reverent of mourners. They are not the sole territory for those with family members buried within the grounds. These cemeteries are owned by the public and maintained with public dollars.
A public cemetery should be viewed as a park. It should be cared for and used by the living. It is a finite space which will eventually be used up and if not treated as a welcoming public space with benches and trash receptacles and picnic opportunities then when the families of those buried there are gone there will be no one to care and advocate for the value of the space.
To make my point, you need look no further than across the street from the Oddfellows Cemetery on University Drive to the newly reclaimed Brush Arbor Cemetery. Without living family members that cemetery had been neglected and is only now getting the attention that comes from belated public involvement.
The current proposal has no additional merit. The complaints stem from the behavior of the people who are not following the existing ordinance requiring people to pick up after their pets. This clause adds another unenforceable layer to the already neglected ordinance prohibitions. We are making criminals out of those mostly young people who are probably least aware of the ado being made about the presence of their dogs.
Awareness should come from signs at the entrances to the cemetery park that should direct the users to leash and pick up after their dogs. It is an easy response that gives fair warning and says that you are welcome to enjoy the public space and encouraged to share it responsibly.
This ordinance modification is an attempt to placate the few. The aldermen have chosen to prohibit an action rather than providing the less popular answer of telling a constituent that their concern already has an answer, but we don’t have the resources for a dedicated a “poop” patrol in our police department.
The opinion expressed in this paper recently spoke to the alternative of the dog park for the purpose of letting dogs exercise off leash. I respectfully beg to differ. They are apples and oranges.
All walks are not a bathroom excursion. That position does not address the needs of residents in nearby neighborhoods who want to go for a walk with their four-legged friend and family member. It does not speak to the ability of the family member of an inhabitant of the cemetery to visit the grave with the beloved family pet.
The comment has been made that the dogs are desecrating the graves. I am amused because I feel certain that possums, squirrels, raccoons, deer and birds are not mindful of where their call of nature occurs. It is biodegradable and when the rains come these “deposits” left by various animals will gently and mostly disappear.
George Carlin used to do a routine on nature and its inevitability. We can certainly try to order the human behavior to conform; good luck with that. To rail against natural occurrences or the call of nature for other members of the animal kingdom is laughable.
The earth, according to geochronologists, is somewhere in the range of 4 billion years old. Who is to say that over those millions of millennia Starkville’s wastewater lagoon is not currently residing on top of someone’s father, mother, uncle, aunt or child?
There is no burial ground more deserving of reverence than that of Arlington Cemetery. Dogs on a leash are welcome there.
I rest my case.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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