(From bulletin I wrote 7/10/09)
I am sickened and saddened by the Burr Oak Cemetery atrocity. It is estimated that as many as 300 or more graves were desecrated with loved ones dug up, dumped out, and scattered to resale plots under the table while burning documentation of ORIGINAL burials and not recording new ones. The historical nature of this cemetery being the first cemetery in the Chicago area to allow blacks to be buried only makes it so much worse and disheartening. To have the first black cemetery in the city of CHICAGO where historical figures, such as Emmett Till and Dinah Washington, are buried treat our loved ones worse than garbage hurts. Anyone with deep roots in the Chicago area has family there. Over 3000 grief-stricken people (many elderly) waited in line for hours yesterday to walk these immense untended grounds with scattered open graves and dangerous, flooded footing in search of loved ones.
PLEASE PRAY FOR US THAT WE FIND IT IN OUR HEARTS TO FORGIVE WHEN IT IS HARD, TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO LOOK WHEN WE MAY FIND NOTHING BUT MORE GRIEF, AND TO HAVE THE STRENGTH TO LET GO WHEN WE CAN SEARCH NO MORE.
UPDATE: Burr Oak is officially closed to public as a crime scene 7/12.
We had decided that patience and not panic was to be our approach even before it was closed...to let some of the chaos be resolved by giving authorities room to do their job to see what is what. At this point the same answer will be there later and rushing may give a premature answer first that causes more pain without being accurrate.