Cemetery Visit Extra Credit

For this extra credit I went with Kevin and Jasper to both of the cemeteries near the trinity church. The thing that I found immediately most shocking was that it was a tourist spot. People are allowed to go in there as they please and although I am not sure about other cemeteries in other parts of the world I don’t think they should be a public place. For people who believe being buried in the ground is a final resting place and for the people who believe saying “rest in peace” has an actual effect on the dead making cemeteries public is some sort of invasion to this. I would imagine there would be a public cemetery and a private cemetery but for those who want to go to the cemetery and grieve, they should be allowed to do this without people like Jasper, Kevin and I going in. I only found the idea of being able to go to this cemetery okay because people who died here apparently died in the 18th century. All of the people who were close to this person at one point should most likely be dead and the tombstones were in very bad condition, so if this place was really a final resting place it should be kept better. At the same time if the people were alive I could imagine they definitely wouldn’t want me there. I was laughing at all of the tombstones which weren’t in the best condition. We walked on the grass at points, very immoral but the idea that they have been gone for so long, their bodies have rotted to the point where it would be unrecognizable. Dead over a certain amount of time lose their value.

So we walked to the cemetery and besides us there were only about 2 other groups of people there. The cemetery is right off a church along with the trinity church cemetery. The tombstones either had something written in another language or just had the name of the person who died and the amount of time they lived. The spacing of the tombstones was confusing. Some tombstones were two feet away from another tombstone. Others had a lot of room, this made me think whether or not now there is a certain amount of space most caskets take up meaning all tombstones would have the be a certain distance away. I also questioned the height of people in the 18th century when seeing that there was a tombstone being completely surrounded by others. Many of them were to the point where the name couldn’t be read anymore and the actual stone was cracked, with the other fraction lying right next to it. There was also a lot of casket like shapes made out of stone that had a top on them. Whether or not this was actually where the body was, I am not sure but these were also very close to falling over and breaking. It all made me think when a cemetery should be cleared of tombstones. People do not go here to grieve anymore they go to see what a part of New York history looks like. The tombstone couldn’t just be cracked in half. It was made of stone and near three to four inches thick. Unless someone came and broke it there was no way it could be in that condition.

Most of what I experienced in both of the cemeteries was not how I would actually experience in a cemetery that is more modern. I was the tombstone for Alexander Hamilton which had the largest most decorative headings and it was more than just a tombstone it was kind of a statue. At the same time even one of the past presidents was buried in this cemetery and the idea that the cemetery was for grieving was thrown out the window this was more for show. I think for me to have an actual experience at a cemetery. An experience where I think more critically about the bodies that are buried under my feet and the people that knew them I would have to go to a more updated cemetery. There would have to be more people who remembered this person who visited and made it a point not to forget. With a cemetery that is run down there isn’t any emotion there is just land.