tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-583544120956527475.post5677441031893047759..comments2024-02-15T11:05:15.579-06:00Comments on Apathetic Lemming of the North: Clark Veterans Cemetery, Angeles City, Philippines: Reality CheckBrian H. Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13209697542675181894noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-583544120956527475.post-65912050812159484782011-07-04T10:34:19.060-05:002011-07-04T10:34:19.060-05:00Brigid,
It's a bit difficult to tell just how...Brigid,<br /><br />It's a bit difficult to tell just how much ash is on that particular plot of land.<br /><br />One clue is this excerpt: "Workers at the cemetery north of Manila recently dug to fully expose a gravestone...." That might imply that the ash was deep enough to obscure part of the headstone, but not all. That might, assuming the gravestones/markers to be similar to what's customary in the Upper Midwest (a big assumption), that the ash is somewhere between a fraction of an inch and three or four feet deep.<br /><br />I'd like to know, too - but the Associated Press article was focused more on pathos than statistics. Nothing wrong with pathos, provided reason is also at work - and that's another topic.<br /><br />I'm inclined to agree that the needs of the living take precedence over cemetery maintenance.<br /><br />I found it interesting that a few minutes of research from some middle-aged dude in central Minnesota found a grassroots local organization which seems to have been involved in maintaining the cemetery - and was willing to accept financial help from non-government sources.<br /><br />As to the scope of the situation in Luzon, the 17 acres mentioned would be - if I did my figures right - about the size of a square 860 feet on a side.<br /><br />That's a bit abstract. Let's try a comparison.<br /><br />Around here, the old gridiron street layouts gave us towns where a 12 x 12 array of blocks is a mile on a side - so streets are 440 feet across - and that 860 x 860 square covers about as much land as four residential blocks.<br /><br />That's not all that much land to clear - provided that a person has time, bulldozers, and gravel trucks. And doesn't mind clearing <b><i>everything</i></b> on the land.<br /><br />It might be faster and less expensive to use a landplane - the sort we use in the Red River Valley of the North to sort out drainage issues, several acres at a time.<br /><br />A cemetery, that's probably hasn't been reliably mapped and, can't be cleared that way. Not respectfully.<br /><br />Since clearing the cemetery is probably a shovel-and-bucket job, I'm not terribly surprised that the process is still going on, two decades after an eruption that disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousand of people.<br /><br />I'm also not terribly surprised that locals are working at clearing the Clark cemetery. It's a reasonable, and very human, show of respect for those who lived before.Brian H. Gillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13209697542675181894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-583544120956527475.post-76072158777189151762011-07-03T21:44:23.908-05:002011-07-03T21:44:23.908-05:00I'd like to know how much ash fell. If it was ...I'd like to know how much ash fell. If it was enough to completely hide the headstones, I'm not at all surprised that the USA government hasn't requisitioned funds for its restorations.<br /><br />Frankly, there are more important things to worry about. And the folks buried there certainly aren't going to be disturbed by a few extra tons of ground-cover on top of their graves.Brigidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03796317915330760325noreply@blogger.com