Volume 25, Issue 3 Letters to the E d itor
WisconsinChristianNews.com
Page 17
Integrating Cemeteries and Nature
Editor, Wisconsin Christian News: June 2024
ural pollinator habitat was only more expensive in the seed. Main- tenance? With volunteer help, monitoring and removal of noxious weeds such as thistles and velvet leaf, the site should only require
cial flowers can be placed by loved ones. As sexton I have watched traditions changing over the years, with cremations now common and ashes placed within a smaller monument space or scattered among beautiful wildflowers with a central monument recording the names. Even traditional buri- als with limited monuments could be done in this portion with natural wildflowers helping memorialize relatives. I began saying this is a story about people doing what they believe is right. There are thousands of cemeteries in Wiscon- sin, where grass is mowed throughout the summer. Pollinators find little nectar, birds find few insects upon which to feed, plas- tic flowers go into the trash. I think of Mark and Louisa planting flowers at little Mary Ann Plummer’s grave. Only seven years later Cyrus Pride would bury a babe as well as a wife. Back then each family cared for the graves of their loved ones; now in most cases that is a pub- lic trust. As sexton I have tried to balance what is right for the loved ones and for local taxpayers. Now, I’m asking what is right for nature. If you either run a cemetery, work at one or visit loved ones and there is a large grass desert – mowed but unused – please think about this. -Bill Behringer, Winneconne, Wis.
This is a story of people doing what they believe is right, not just for themselves. It begins in 1848 when a young girl, Mary Ann Plummer, died and was buried on their farm as was then com- mon. Later in 1869 her parents, Mark and Louisa Plummer, as well as neighbors Cyrus and Malona Pride, each gave land to start what would become Plummer Cemetery in the Town of Oshkosh. In 1926, another acre would be ceded by their de- scendant Levi. In 1999, the Leach and Stearns families would cede another acre for future cemetery use. That acre was already under town control through a conservancy that had been set up for hun- dreds of other acres of land in the town – land that could have been sold for development. For them the right thing was keep- ing it farmland, or letting it return to nature. Most is still farmed. Being sexton of the Plummer Cemetery for almost 40 years – taking over from my dad – something about that new acre got me thinking. It could be left as farmland, or turned into lawn, for future sales. Yet, there was still almost an acre of unsold lots serving that purpose. It could become more grass desert. Did town taxpayers really need to pay for more mowing? I searched for groups such as Wild Ones, with conservation-minded members trying to restore natural habitat little by little. Could this one acre of the cemetery serve as such? Last year, wildflower seeds were planted there and the cost was meager compared with the expense of working the soil and planting grass seed, along with continued mowing. The planting of this nat-
controlled burns. The Town of Oshkosh Fire Department, required to conduct train- ing exercises every year, can control-burn that parcel as needed. Hopefully, burn-hardy trees such as oak and hickory may take foot hold as well.
Plans are in the works to keep this portion of the cemetery in natural habitat. Those wishing to pur- chase traditional lots have many of those available with mowed grass around a monument where artifi-
The Ship of America: A Parable
Editor, Wisconsin Christian News: June 2024
and crew were eating more and more of their supplies. The paint was beginning to peel. When they spoke to the captain about the sorry state of their ship, he pointed out that he was captain, they were passengers, and that they should mind their own business. He added that mu- tineers were subject to keel- hauling and being hanged from the yardarm. Then he ordered them off HIS bridge. They didn’t know what keelhauling or yardarms were, but they knew that the ship was THEIRS, not HIS. They adjourned to the bar to discuss their options. The ex- tremists advocated throwing the captain and his crew overboard while the moder- ates argued that since they had forgotten how to run a ship, they had no choice but to obey the captain and hope for the best. Soon, furious ar- guments broke out featuring harsh words like “lily livered lefty weasel” and “red-necked illiterate wingnut.” They began to loath one another even more than they hated the captain and his crew who was stealing their ship. When the extremists stormed back to the bridge to confront the captain, armed with the original ship consti- tution that declared them to be OWNERS, certainly NOT passengers, the captain tore up their constitution, calling them “deplorable illiterate dingbats” who didn’t even know that their ship consti- tution was ALIVE, not dead. It was a living document, and his grown-up version de- clared that THE CAPTAIN was the true owner. They were passengers, not even crew. He then pronounced them insurrectionist muti- neers and ordered his loyal crew to lock them down in the hold.
The moderate owners, mut- tering, “We told you so,” re- treated to the casino to hope that their luck would im- prove. Suddenly, their play was interrupted by a loud “NOW HEAR THIS!” followed by the captain’s amplified voice, booming throughout the ship, ordering all passen- gers to report to their lifeboat stations. Without even apologizing for the inconvenience of hav- ing no lifeboats, he contin- ued. As the ship had encountered a serious EMERGENCY, brought on by depleted supplies and toxic carbon emissions, all passen- gers must immediately ABANDON SHIP to enable the valiant captain and crew to fight for the life of a sus- tainable, carbon-neutral ship. They froze as the voice con- tinued. The first to be jetti- soned would be the extremists, now locked in the hold, whose mutinous con- spiratorial attitudes threat- ened the very survival of captain and crew, not to mention the ship. The last group to go overboard would be moderate passengers. They breathed easier. It could be worse. They could be first. They broke into cheers when they heard the final an- nouncement. Moderate pas- sengers who volunteered for the unpleasant but necessary job of assisting the extremists over the side would be al- lowed to join the crew — at half rations, of course. They rushed to volunteer, thank- ing the captain for his gen- erosity. Meanwhile, the extremist owners, buffing up on prison push-ups in the hold, waited for their opportunity. -Art DeJong, Sheboygan, WV
Once upon a time a group of young, ambitious entrepre- neurs bought a large ship, wrote a ship constitution, hired their own captain, and set sail to make their for- tunes, serving as deck hands on their own ship. While owner-operated small boats were common, as were the occasional pirate ship, back in the day, large ships needed beefy captains and tough officers to rule large crews of unruly deckhands. Everyone knew that it was ridiculous, even immoral, to expect deckhands to manage a ship. That was the cap- tain’s job. Deckhands would just argue amongst them- selves until the ship ended up on the rocks. Everybody sat back to wait for the shipwreck. They waited. And they waited some more. But a strange thing happened — or didn’t hap- pen. The ship sailed peace- fully from one success to the next. Captains came and went peacefully while the owner-operated ship became the most successful ship on the seven seas — so success- ful that more owner-operated ships joined them. This pri- vately owned fleet brought prosperity and peace wher- ever they sailed. The owner deckhands of the flagship soon became so rich that they ordered the captain to hire a crew to do the work, leaving them plenty of time to enjoy the cruise: to play pickle ball, to drive golf balls off the aft deck, to gam- ble in the casino, and to enjoy long happy hours. And it was all good. But soon they noticed that the ship frequently lost power and often drifted toward the rocks. It seemed to be cruis- ing aimlessly. The captain
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