THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507040109
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Considering the lack of respect for life these days, it should come as no surprise that we have no respect for the dead.
Yet, the desecration of cemeteries in Portsmouth still amazes me.
A few days ago, somebody damaged 50 markers at Olive Branch Cemetery - a spectacular manifestation of lack of respect.
Unfortunately, this is just the latest of many acts of vandalism and neglect that are leaving our graveyards in shambles.
Black, white, Jewish, Catholic, public, private, segregated, integrated - it doesn't matter. The vandalism is not aimed at any group by any group. Rather it seems just one more symptom of the total breakdown of respect for each other in this country - and in this city.
Used to be, when you died, you got respect - whether you earned it or not. Death was so moving and profound people always seemed able to find something good to say about the deceased. Even the toughest kids stood in awe of the tombstones and cemeteries a generation ago.
Now the rampant destruction of our graveyards speaks loud and clear about the lack of respect and awe for anybody or anything.
But cemetery vandalism is symptomatic of a much larger problem.
People raised on sound bites and fast food have no understanding of history or of family. There is little continuity of life for them. Today is all that matters.
For instance, July 4 is the real national holiday - a day everybody in the United States should mark as more than just a day off.
But we take for granted ``Independence Day'' that made this country possible, that gave us the freedoms we so regularly abuse in our misguided understanding of what liberty and justice are all about.
Patriotism seems to have become an ugly word. Yet true patriotism has nothing to do with politics, race, gender or any of the other things that divide us in this nation. We use those divisions as excuses to justify our lack of respect for this nation - and for each other, for that matter.
Hidden somewhere in each of us must be some forgotten notion that the American flag stands for something good. Why else would the flag be such a selling tool for auto dealers and fast food chains?
That the flag has been usurped by the hucksters is a sad comment on the national ethos, however.
Remember when the Portsmouth Flag Associates were trying to get permission to put the flag on the Seawall at the foot of High Street? Opponents of the idea had a lot of strange reasons but the strangest of all came from those who said they didn't want the Downtown waterfront to look like a used car lot or a hamburger stand.
Now that was a twist that really boggles the mind.
If statements like that come from prominent citizens, it should be no surprise that young people coming along don't understand patriotism.
Of course, some politicians who wrap themselves in patriotism and the flag only for the purpose of attracting certain votes don't do much to further true respect either.
Real patriotism and real respect include a large element of tolerance of differences among us. That, it seems to me, is what this country is all about. You have a right to believe whatever you want to believe but you don't have a right either to slander with words or to slay with bullets those who don't agree with you.
We have lost our history. We no longer have a perspective on the Revolution and the formation of this nation. Furthermore, we don't seem to care that this is happening. We rewrite history at every turn, making it conform to our own needs of the moment.
The continuity of life from the days of the early settlers to now, from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to July 4, 1995, has been lost in the erratic way we teach history and civics.
The neglect of cemeteries is one more symptom of our failure to understand our connections with the past and with the future.
The graves of those who made the place where we live remind us that what we have now depended on those who came before us. They also remind us that life will go on long after we depart and that what we do now will affect those who come later.
Portsmouth must make every effort to catch and punish graveyard vandals. It's one small stand we can take against those who would destroy all this nation stands for. by CNB