by Joe Snyder
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Unknown persons, in a growing number of cemeteries across America dating back to the Revolutionary War under the outstretched limbs of ancient trees, are today missing something. Hefty bronze plaques are missing from ancient graves that have been pried off veterans’ headstones to be sold for scrap metal in New York State. Such brazen thefts have left a void that extends far beyond the gravesites.
Such vandalism is about as low as any human being can get.
Authorities say families have been stung by the thefts. Unfortunately the people doing this really don’t think or care about the loved ones who have to deal with the pain of such happenings. Alan Galster, 46, an Army veteran of the Gulf war and the war in Iraq, was so upset after reading news accounts of the thefts, contacted his congressman Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, to demand action. Schumer wants to see any theft from a veteran’s grave classified as a felony.
“I personally think most families suffer from the immoral indignities of what these vandals are doing – committing treasonous acts – than from what the enemy is doing,” said Galster who commands a VFW Post. “We need to send a clear message this will no longer be tolerated.” Some residents want the law there changed to include veterans’ markers. While sympathetic, officials there said the Federal government had little jurisdiction over government cemeteries.
A proposed state law that would establish desecrating a veteran’s gravesite a felon, including theft of an object such as a flag holder, has passed the New York state senate but stalled in the Assembly where it remains stuck in committee.
Jeanne Pizzoleo, a waitress in a nearby town, was taking flowers to the graves of relatives when she noticed that each of the flag-holders commemorating their military service was missing. She soon learned they had been stolen. “I cried,” she said. “It’s desecration. It’s sacrilegious. These people have to be as cold as ice. You stop and wonder: What are they thinking? Where’s their conscious?”
One cemetery was hit the hardest, each losing nearly a dozen plaques with the largest weighing 30 pounds. They had been pried from their location on the tombstones.
One metal recycler alerted police that a man had tried to sell a bucket of flag holders but the recycler turned him away not before getting the man’s license plate number. This resulted in the arrest of several suspects. They had also stolen flag holders from a score of gravesites.
Authorities are now policing and keeping a closer watch on area cemeteries. One problem is that so many are in rural areas and small towns where most burial sites are not regularly policed. Many do not have fences or gates and not always policed on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are many cemeteries.
I can recall rare instances in Gallatin and Daviess County where vandalism in cemeteries has been a major problem. This speaks well for our youth and all our citizens. When you think about it, it is hard to think of a more disgusting and sad offense than vandalizing a cemetery.
Let our loved ones rest in peace.