Burying the Boston Bomber

It is a natural reaction of the human mind to be upset and angered that one of the monsters that bombed the Boston Marathon deserves a respectful burial.  Some people protested angrily outside a funeral home to show their anger and American pride.  It is the wrong reaction.  The person that committed the reprehensible crime is no longer with us.  All that remains is a body with no life in it.  No different than a rock.  Some people have argued that we should have tossed him into the middle of a pig farm simply because he was Muslim and let the hogs have their way with his body.  Some people say that we should have dumped him off a boat in the Atlantic along with Osama Bin Laden and never think of him again. That was pure anger, a natural but wrong logical thought process.

Tamerlane Tsarnaev was a terrorist.  He had a mission to destroy the American way of life to send some kind of message that was as twisted as his own mind was.  He wanted you and I to hate America because he hated America.  Why he hated our country and why he and his younger brother did the bombing of the Boston Marathon may never be known.  He struck a nerve when it came time to bury his body.  Not one cemetery in the northern states seashore of the United States wanted him buried in their hallowed grounds. 

Does a terrorist deserve a burial according to religious tradition?  Granted, most terrorist bombers of this kind never need a proper burial, because there are never enough pieces left.  This case is different.  We had a body.  No matter what crime you commit in your life, everyone has the right to a proper burial.  Burial tradition is not for the one that committed the crime but for the family to grieve, and get past the idiotic thing that you did against all of humanity.  Would you blame his three year old daughter for all of his sins and crimes against humanity? 

Some people and some reporters think it is a good idea to protest a funeral.  For the reporter it is a paycheck on a situation that is blood boiling mad for the protesters.  Anger feeds headlines and sells newspapers.  It sells well till you think it out.  

A funeral is the time for the family to bury their dead.  They had nothing to do with the madness of Tamerlane Tsarnaev.  They will carry the guilt of his actions till the day they die with great shame.  Some people say that he should have been cremated.  That is against not only Muslim religious belief but also Catholic religious belief.  Add a ton of other religions that believe the body should be returned to the earth and you get one conclusion.  Burial.

There is no logical reason to protest a funeral unless you are as radical as the Wesboro Baptist Church that thinks it is okay to protest every dead soldiers funeral.  Burying your dead is a hard time for any family.  That is a time when we as American's draw the line.  We do not prey on the family of our enemies.  We are not the monsters of other peoples creations.  Does protesting a funeral or showing utter contempt that the bomber is dead change anything?  It does not.  Screaming and shouting your message to a family member that had nothing to do with the crime is dishonorable and wrong.    

I have been a member of a great organization for over ten years that I have 100% pride in.  I feel no shame for having my name or blog associated with it.  I'm talking about the Patriot Guard Riders.  Our mission is to honor the family of our nations fallen military.  This organization was formed to combat Westboro Baptist Church and their protests at funerals for our fallen sons and daughters, family members in uniform.  Patriot Guard Riders only show up to keep the WBC protest out of sight of the family burying a loved one.  And only at the request of the family.  Their mission has expanded to more interactions but you can get the full message by Google searching Patriot Guard Riders and joining us.

Protesting any funeral to sell your message is wrong no matter how angry you are at the person about to be buried.  It makes you party to the same madness as the WBC.  America is a changing experiment and we need to find our way that is right because we think it is the right way to be.  Not because someone showed so much hate for us that he died for being wrong.  American patriots die every single day in uniform but few care.  Protest that by showing up for the family supporting them during a time of grieving.  Walk into the funeral home and just thank the family for their loved one. That is a message that Tamerlane Tsarnaev never understood.  They were wrong.  We as a people are right because we have honor and respect for all faiths and all traditions no matter your origin.  That includes burial.

Protesting a funeral, no matter what reason or logic you think is right is wrong.  Grahm Putnam and Mahoney Funeral home was doing what is right by offering to bury the dead for a person that was once a human being to his family.  They took the job on because nobody else would.  They do the same thing for people that nobody else cares about.  The homeless, people with no family, people that are Jane Doe or John Doe.  I applaud them for standing up and taking the heat.  Everyone on this planet deserves a respectful burial or service even if nobody shows up or even cared.  Please don't ever point a GP&M as a funeral home that is anti American.  They by far showed that we are American.  Think about it.

Papamoka

Adding to Death and Taxes Certainties of Life

Picture courtesy of Bennett Funeral Coaches

Benjamin Franklin didn't have it covered when he said that the only certain things in life were Death and Taxes.

In the funeral industry there is a private code of ethics when it comes to caring for the deceased of any family. Respect and dignity is the goal of every funeral home and many families benefit from this service during a very difficult time in their lives. Loosing a child is tragic, it rips the families heart and soul out to bury a child. Love of the child is overpowering to the parent and providing a descent burial is foremost the parents only concern.

That being said, you have the Papamoka Scum Bag Award winner in Springville, Utah. How would you like to show up at your teen age sons grave and find the headstone gone? Words on a stone to some are just that but your child’s name over a grave is just one of the steps in the grief process. To find it was repossessed is just disgusting in my opinion.

Over at the Houston Chronicle they have this piece on head stone repo’s…

Teen crash victim's headstone repossessed over unpaid bill
Associated Press

SPRINGVILLE, Utah — The cemetery headstone for a teenager who died in a car wreck was repossessed after a $750 bill went unpaid.

"That's just business," said Linda Anderson of Memorial Art Monument. "If we give every stone to everybody, we'd be out of business. They'd repossess your car if you didn't make payments."

Brady Conger, 17, and two friends died when their car smashed into a sport utility vehicle a year ago Thursday.

Memorial Art said bills sent to one address were returned, and the business couldn't reach Brady's mother, who apparently had agreed last year to pay the balance. "The end result was that there was absolutely no one who I could talk to about this," owner Mike Anderson said.

Brady's classmates raised money to pay the bill, and the headstone will be installed again this week. - Houston Chronicle

I understand that any business needs to get paid for the services they provide but maybe these folks stepped over the line. This particular industry has no room for mistakes and if the business owner did not do his homework on the customers credit history then the stone should have staid where it should have rested for eternity.

This business owner could have reached out to the church the child was buried under or contacted local charitable organizations if the bill was unpaid. There are far too many avenues of restitution that his headstone company overlooked to even justify yanking the grave marker off of this child’s grave. Churches are not just for worship, they are their to help the people in their congregation. Would you as a parishioner not thrown ten bucks or twenty bucks in a basket if you knew the head stone for a seventeen year old kid was in jeopardy? My personal thanks to his classmates that did the right thing. They are wiser at their age than people give them credit for and I absolutely adore them for paying the bill.

Which brings me to the point of my post. Death and taxes are a given fact of life in these here United States of America but so is the right of a respectful burial no matter your lot in life in these United States of America. Being a Catholic, I know that once a grave is established the consecrated ground can not be disturbed.

Some folks like to bash us Catholics for our belief but I know that my church will not allow any debtors to yank me up out of the ground if my widow and five daughters can’t make the payments on my casket. Stories like this make me proud of my choice of faith.

Papamoka