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NEWS > U.S.A. > ARLINGTON OFFICIALS MAKE GRAVE ERRORS
ARLINGTON OFFICIALS MAKE GRAVE ERRORS
July 31 2010
Arlington, VA – No matter the culture, no matter the religion, no matter the politics there is one area in life where all people agree that respect should be paid. That one place is in death. Different cultures have different traditions, some sombre, some 
bizarre, but the one constant throughout the world and throughout history is respect and fealty to the departed and the lives they lived. Even in warfare where soldiers are obligated to put people into the grave, the respect once their opponents have passed remains true and honest.
In western tradition graveyards are the final repose for the departed and have always been a place for solemn remembrance and peaceful contemplation. Philosophically such traditions may be us coming to terms with our own mortality or it may simply be a grieving for those who are no longer in our lives. Whatever the psychological motivation, the resting place for the dead is a place to be respected and honoured. There is perhaps no bigger or more famous place for final repose than Arlington National Cemetery just outside of Washington. The final resting place for war heroes and Presidents, Arlington is a sprawling tribute to the dead and the sacrifices they made in life. However, a new scandal has tainted that memory with the revelation that as many as 6600 graves may be mislabelled angering survivors and creating a slight headache for officials.
“Personally it is very painful for me that our team at Arlington did not perform all aspects of its mission to the high standard required. We believe that suggested cemetery employees and poor technology were to blame for remains that may have been misidentified or misplaced,” now former Cemetery director John Metzler told a Senate committee. “The system used to track grave sites relied mostly on a complicated paper trail vulnerable to error. I do accept full responsibility for the problems.”
Metzler ran the grounds for 19 years but resigned following the revelation of the issues. He also stated to the committee that most if not all of the issues have only come around in the last month or so.
“Frankly everyone is a little angry about the whole thing. We all really liked John and
it’s not going to be the same without him. He was a good guy, let us do what we wanted and didn’t pester us too much. I really don’t see what the big deal is, I mean they are dead after all. It’s not like we were sending them the wrong mail or anything,” said an Arlington worker who preferred not to be named. “I mean people come and grieve and it really doesn’t matter whose body is under the ground in the end. It’s not like they really notice when people come by to visit. Besides that we’ve got all the really important people in the right places. This whole thing is totally silly.”
Amongst the high profile residents are John Foster Dulles, Thurgood Marshall, Lee Marvin, and former Presidents John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft. The tomb of the Unknowns has been unaffected by the issue. 
“In theory it probably doesn’t matter all that much who is under the ground. Like any
kind of worship, proof is almost irrelevant to the larger cause. That said once people find out they are obviously going to be a little angry and that’s understandable,” said Scrape TV American analyst Dave Davidson. “For the workers though this is going to be a big change. They are used to just throwing bodies and gravemarkers wherever is most convenient but now they are going to have make a serious effort to match things up. That’s a whole lot more paperwork and whole lot more headaches. I have a feeling they are going to be looking at a lot of turnover in the next few weeks, and not just in the graves.”
A minority of the senate also brought up concerns about the difficulties in tracking the dead should they suddenly rise from their graves but those questions were largely downplayed.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
NEWS > U.S.A. > ARLINGTON OFFICIALS MAKE GRAVE ERRORS
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