The Forgotten, The Disrespected

Right in the middle of town lies Old Angola Cemetery. City founders were laid to rest here. Civil war veterans, too. Over the past 10-20 years, it has fallen into disrepair. It comes under the jurisdiction of the Pleasant Township Trustee, Craig Rice. Cemetery maintenance has never been high on his list of priorities.

The old cemetery has a very bad neighbor in Univertical, helmed by Chuck Walker. His company has always pushed it's spare junk up as close to the fence as possible, causing quite the eyesore. Now he's taken down the chain link fence surrounding the place and has started constructing a building as close as possible. Boards and construction waste have been haphazardly flung onto people's graves, and the grass has been trampled flat.

Where does this disrespect end? Will Walker be allowed to pave the cemetery for parking? Grind the headstones up for gravel? Walker has threatened to move out of town, taking his 60 (wow) jobs with him. Is this why he was allowed to do this? He stomped his size 7 fine leather loafer and threated to close shop?

Angola was founded by go-getters. The bold and the brave. In the ensuing decades, residents have become more and more complacent. The "oh well" attitude is like an epidemic. But we all deserve a pleasant place to rest our bones, somewhere for our loved ones to come and remember and maybe leave a memento on our final resting spot. Anyone unfortunate enough to have a loved one interred in Old Angola now has to put up with the sights, sounds and smells of a factory, now just mere feet away with no buffer. And nothing stinks worse than disrespect.