Letter of the Day: Backyard burials

Backyard burials

EDITOR: "Mendocino County has a long history of drawing attention to how far afield the complexities and absurdities of modern life have taken us from the simpler ways of the past" ("A mountain of rules for home burials," Close to Home, Saturday).

"The simpler ways of the past" concerning burials was simply to intern grandma in a cemetery where friends and relatives could easily access and visit. Now - in the terminal phase of the civil rights movement led by Dan Hamburg - an old friend of the dead disliked by a property owner could be shot for trespass. Sure, plant everyone out by the barbecue. It's a national movement - every suburb a cemetery; every condo a crypt. Yes, Mendocino County does have a long history of "drawing attention:" Jim Jones; serial killers Charles Ng and Leonard Lake, and a very high body count in the marijuana woods. And, yes, who isn't saddened by the loss of a man's wife. However, sympathy aside, let us not forget that the grieving man in question-championing our right to plant grandpa by the fish pond-is, in fact, a serial activist politician and currently the president of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. He's suing his own (going broke) county for damages! Add that to the long history of "drawing attention." It will cost tax payer's money to defend this frivolous suit, and possibly even more if it succeeds. That's money that could be better spent filling the pot holes on Mendocino County's third world roads…or hiring deputy sheriffs to protect our kids so that they don't end up in a cemetery.

MICHAEL KOEPF

Elk