He is the coward who, outfaced in this,
Fears the false goblins of another life. — Paul Laurance Dunbar
There’s apparently no indication that the terrorists who attacked an Ohio cemetery this week were specifically looking for the graves of celebrities to attack, but that is what they did, nonetheless.
It was reported this week that the graves of the Wright brothers, poet Paul Laurance Dunbar (I know why the caged bird sings!) and some 60 others in a Dayton, Ohio cemetery had been vandalized.
Most everyone remembers the advances in flight that were made by the Wright brothers. Unless you are into poetry, you may not have heard a lot about Dunbar, but it’s not like he’s remembered for writing horror poetry or something and his verse has a great message, even all these years later.
These are nice people — or were. And that’s what they have in common. They’re all dead and buried in a cemetery in Dayton, Ohio, where they were included in some 62 gravesites that were vandalized this week.
Damage at Woodland Cemetery is expected to top $25,000, which is actually pretty minor compared to some other cemetery attacks — including at least one of the attacks on Great Bend Cemetery in recent years.
With the cost of monument repairs, it doesn’t take all that long to hit $25,000.
In addition to the mindless destruction, these miscreants also stole flags off the graves for American heroes Orville and Wilbur Wright.
This needs to qualify as a hate crime, where ever it happens, to whom ever it happens.
Families who can’t even rest assured that their loved ones are safe in their graves are under attack here, and where ever it happens in this nation, it needs to be addressed with speed, finality and resolve.
Make an example of vandals.
What they do is an attack on the peace of our community.
— Chuck Smith