IS IT TRUE

1. Exhuming the graves under the road would be a silly thing to do. The money required could be helping the living in need. It was a terrible mistake which shouldn’t have been done, but taking potential food from the mouths and clothes off the backs of living children in need to correct the mistake is something I could not support.

   • Perhaps we could just take the money from the council for their neglect, as well as seek money from those responsible for allowing the paving in the first place?

     If it were my child’s grave that had been paved over, the city would be paying for exhuming the grave and THEN some.

2. The fact that no relatives of said babies ever knew of the alleged paving or as much as raised a finger to do anything about it ought to tell you how big of a deal this issue really is.

   • How am I not surprised that the local liberal isn’t worried about babies being buried under a road?

3. This makes me sick to my stomach. A complaint needs to be filed with the state, the fed, whoever to get this situation rectified. This is beyond absurd.

4. What the heck is this? Is it true someone is obsessed with bone yards? This is not what we usually see in a column called Is it true. Please get back to the real is it true topics and let the dead lie.

   • If your mother, father daughter or son passes and is buried….would you be upset if we paved over them? Without notice? Or would you just call them a box full of bones and tell us you are ‘more concerned with real issues’?

     Even savages in the ancient world had respect for the dead. Have we really sunk so far in our nation that there is none here? Not even for babies?

     Then again, I suppose a nation that allows wholesale murder of babies under the name ‘abortion’ will inevitably have people who dont care about the remains of babies.

5. When as a society we do not show due consideration for the most innocent of another generation’s loved ones, even if they are only known to God, then we have become a cold and calloused people. I doubt we could any longer call ourselves a civilized more or less compassionate. No cost or inconvenience should be spared to right this wrong.

   • I could not disagree more. To use funds that could be otherwise employed to alleviate the suffering of LIVING children and families on tearing up a road that was a mistake to build is just adding to the senselessness.

     Calling people who’d rather focus on God’s living creatures “callous” is an oversimplification of the debate.

     • Brad, I agree. How many lost graves have been dug up, plowed over, paved over, flooded out, heaved by tree roots over time? We shall never know. There is evidence of a large family graveyard in Wesselman Park that is paved over. It is at the northeast corner of the golf course. The city knew it was doing this but the graves were so old that they didn’t figure it mattered. The city had carted away the headstones several years prior. I don’t support their actions. In addition to disrespect to the dead it erased a piece of history since these graves had links to the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

       But the big point is this. We have so many living in need that I would have to believe that people in the past would, due to lack of plenty in their own time, have undoubtedly said to feed and clothe the needy because their baby is now in a better place and feels no pain. I have a baby sister who was born before me, the sibling I never knew. She is not under the road about which we speak, but if she were, I would say let her rest in peace. She is in my heart not under that road.

       • Martha, how does the number of times this desecration has occurred justify it? It’s wrong every time, needs to stopped, and needs to be corrected whenever possible no matter the cost. To not do so is indicative of a narcissistic generation who has lost site of their heritage, respect for those who came before them, and who has no demonstrable self respect.

         Every atrocity that has ever been perpetrated by man has been done under the guise of a greater good for man. This incident is wrong and can only be made right by excavation and re-entombment.

       • Good response. I have to agree with you.

         Ashes to ashes … dust to dust. Let them be and move on.

     • Brad, isn’t “think of the children” the first cry of liberals when they want to justify something that is wrong? I’m sorry, this living trust can no more correct this disgrace than a Jewish children s fund could atone the atrocities of the holocaust. But unlike the holocaust, this atrocity can be and should be undone.

   • Well said Enoch!

     “”Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.” – William Gladstone

     • Excellent quote, and very applicable to this situation.

       Brad and Martha are good and sympathetic people, but in this case I think empathy is needed.

       As I said in another post, out of respect I do not walk on graves, and I will not drive on this road again until this desecration is corrected.

6. You really have no idea how government works.Road construction and repair comes from city and county funds in depts allocated for such tasks as evidenced with the current oak hill reconstruction. No kids were sent to bed hungry because of these road repairs. The roads around locust hill need bike lanes and a complete street overhaul anyways. I live in the county but your thought process is on par with dramatics than practicality.

   • Sorry. This message is in reply to Brad Linzy.

   • We understand that road repairs do not feed children. We are speaking of the priority of dollar use in our society.

     • Nice spin job but you still have yet to comprehend that funds used to tear apart a road would come from a road fund and would not nor could not be used on anything else if not used for such purposes.
       If only people like you could show up with the “let’s take care of the children first” motto every single time the government spends a dime on something we might indeed get the small government we so desperately need.

       • I don’t know the answer to this for sure, but you might be wrong on this. Why would a cemetery road be funded by a county roads fund? Seems to me that would come out of the cemeteries fund. Looking at a map of Oak Hill, of all the roads out there, only one has an official name, Central Drive, and even that road is closed up after hours. Something tells me these roads aren’t paved with road funds. Am I wrong?

         Where there’s a will there’s a way. If the responsible Council, whichever that may be, wants to make this right and juggle some budgets, I’ll bet they can. It would beat the hell out of tearing up and rebuilding the road at a huge expense when better things could be done with the money.

         • Could a sign be placed where all the graves were paved over , maybe a roadway near by acknowledging the mistakes that were made ???
           I agree it was a terrible thing to do , but does it make it right to disturb their graves once again ? I honestly don’t know…. Maybe all this is a sign from above telling us we still need prayer in schools and before government meetings?……

     • Road repairs do feed children, the children of those who repair the roads. The priority of how public dollars are spent depends on the political agenda. The Fraud Ctr., Earthscam, the hotel, a dog park, front door pride and other projects had priority. The hungry children thing is getting old and it is true. Evansville is one of the most generous cities in this country, people give a lot of their resources and time trying to make this city better. There’s no way any of us would knowingly let a child go hungry, this city is absolutely full of resources, private and public to prevent this. The social services industry knows the problem exist but the solution is too difficult to implement. Very simply put, children are hungry, the resources are available, hungry children have incompetent parent(s).

   • I understand the difference between funds for roads and funds for welfare. That’s not my point. My point is, I’d rather see limited funds diverted away from fixing this huge mistake with the graveyard road – hundreds of thousands of dollars, if the estimates I’m hearing are correct – and given to children’s charities in the names of the people whose memories were desecrated by the road. In this way, we might sublimate this mistake and turn it into something positive that will honor the memories of the dead we dishonored.

     • Actually what you are saying makes more sense than exhuming dirt. There are no coffins left. Everything has most likely fully decomposed. An old cemetery like that has poor drainage and probably sped the process up even more. It would be very difficult to even attempt it and may be more disruptive than beneficial. This seems cruel and adds to the inhumane ways of what occured before. As tasteless as this sound someone had to say it.

     • We dig up roads to fix water pipes, we can dig up one to fix this desecration. There is no ethical substitute for it.

       There is a good possibility that remains of these infants are to some extent intact. were there not some recently discovered at the state hospital? are not pioner graves often discovered when interstates are built? If you were building a home and discovered a burial site, construction would be stopped until the remains were properly cared for. why that simple decency was ignored in this case can only be attributed to the uncaring leadership this city has suffered under for half a century. If we had paved over the Reitz family’s tombs, Russel Lloyd’s tomb, or Enjambment Bosse’s tomb, there would be no rest until that desecration was corrected by re-entombment. These innocents deserve no less.

       • Digging up the road is justified. I completely agree with you. Exhuming what you can find is extremely disruptive and that is what i disagree with. Leave them where they always were instead of panning for remains. I think a large memorial for the unknown like Brad suggested is the best idea. Leave the grass area and only leave an ally way for equipment access if possible.

         • My understanding is that the road is a public one next to the cemetery. Perhaps the solution is close the road.

7. Take up the Road or leave the babies graves paved over?
   A Money decision? No,– a Moral decision. If Evansville can hang $200,000 Dollars worth of “Art” on the side of “The John”, while the food Banks go begging, and No protest , but righting a Wrong in the Cemeteries raises the “We must Do-good for the living mantra”, by a few of you, makes me conclude your “sympathy” pronouncements are a FACADE!–you hide behind, to justify your smug “righteousness”, –and It’s disgusting to see it on display when you suggest abandoning these babies.

   • Some of you just need to consider having your remains cremated and have your people just throw them out with the trash, and garbage,–after all,– it shouldn’t make any difference to you. With the rationalizations with which some of you put forth about these babies,-I’d believe you need to change your Wills– TODAY!

     • I will be cremated, and I sure won’t know the difference. Nor will you.

       • Good! Can you take care of that as soon as possible?

       • Exactly.

8. What if this was Arlington Cemetery instead of a city owned cemetery? Would Linzy and Crosley have a different opinion about paving over those graves?

   The dead infants in those graves deserve our respect. Did their families pay for these plots? And when they did were they told the headstones would be removed one day and the grass above them would be replaced with pavement and vehicles driving across them?

   Shameful. It says a lot about our community that this is even debatable. It’s disgraceful in every sense of the word and we should all DEMAND that the situation be resolved ASAP.

   I learned a lot about Mr. Linzy the last few days. He has lost ALL of my respect toward him – challenging public officials to boxing matches one minute and paving over dead babies’ bodies the next. I bet he’s Right To Life, too. His commitment to life ends at birth and even at death, obviously. Disgraceful.

   • Arlington has many problems. This may not be the best comparison but I get your point. You may not want to read too much about Arlington and other national cemetery issues or you will really be in an uproar.

     • You didn’t actually expect them to know what they were talking about, did you?

     • I am very familiar with the conditions of Arlington Cemetery. In no way do I find them to be acceptable. Those conditions have only been allowed because they have been swept under the rug. It doesn’t change the fact that most of those who seem to be content with the conditions at our cemetery would not be if they saw these same conditions at Arlington.

   • You just totally confused what I said. I did not say I was ok with paving over graves. I just said that the money to fix the horrific and egregious error would be yet another mistake because there is a better solution that would both honor the dead AND sublimate the mistake.

     Here is what I proposed:

     1: erect a monument by the road explaining the mistake and listing names of the dead whose graves were defiled by the road
     2: calculate what tearing out the road would cost, then make donations to local children’s charities in the names of those people

     It’s simple, it’s elegant, it isn’t perfect, but its better than the other options. Plus, it should satisfy all sides.

     • You’ve told us this 1,000 times and still nobody cares. You seem to think every issue is a golden opportunity for you to cook up some grand plan to make yourself stand out. It’s as if you’re saying “Hey everyone look at me.” You have proven that you will stop at nothing for this attention as well.
       Your article on bribery reeks of this same thing. No road should ever go over anyone’s grave especially baby ones. It should be removed just as if a simple water leak had occurred on it. I doubt you will comprehend this largely due to your thirst for attention but that’s just the way it needs to be. End of story.

       • To hear you talk, I have tar on my shoes from paving the damn road myself.

9. I find it highly ironic that Mr. Baer was portrayed as grandstanding because he made a video of the cemeteries he’d just like to clean up and blamed no one for the conditions while Mr. Cooke apparently has a petition to remove the current Harrison football coach from the head coaching position.

   https://www.change.org/petitions/evansville-vanderburgh-school-corporation-board-remove-brian-lewis-as-head-coach-of-the-football-team-at-harrison

   Here’s my favorite part of the petition- “I love it when the Courier gets the story wrong.” Nuff said.

   • That is not the current coach. It is grandstanding when you refuse to help solve an issue but have no problem complaining in that way.

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