It's only a dead body
The uncle of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev arrived
in Massachusetts on Sunday to arrange for his burial, saying he
understands that "no one wants to associate their names with such evil
events."..
Funeral director Peter Stefan said he hasn't been able to find a
cemetery in Massachusetts willing to take the body. He said he plans to
ask the city of Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived, to provide a burial
plot, and if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state
officials...
[Cambridge city manager Robert] Healy says it would not be in the best interest of the city to execute a deed for a plot at Cambridge Cemetery... He said the families who have loved ones interred at the cemetery also
deserve to have their deceased family members rest in peace. He said
other federal agencies should take the lead in the burial...
Tsarni told reporters that he is arranging for Tsarnaev's burial
because religion and tradition call for his nephew to be buried. He
would like him buried in Massachusetts because he's lived in the state
for the last decade, he said. "I'm dealing with logistics. A dead person must be buried," he said.
Stefan said he has received calls from people criticizing him and
calling him "un-American" for being willing to handle Tamerlan
Tsarnaev's funeral."We take an oath to do this. Can I pick and choose? No. Can I
separate the sins from the sinners? No," he said. "We are burying a dead
body. That's what we do."
A half dozen protesters gathered outside the funeral home Sunday
holding signs and American flags and chanting "USA!" One sign read: "Do
not bury him on U.S. soil." Several people drove by the funeral home
earlier Sunday and yelled, including one man who shouted, "Throw him off
a boat like Osama bin Laden!"
And from the comments at
Huffington Post:
This %$^#^ does not deserve to buried on US soil. I'm surprised his
family is even trying, if he does end up being buried here, his grave
will be desecrated on a regular basis, and I can't say I blame whoever
would do it.
Maybe there's a nice dog park in Boston where they can bury him. He
gets buried, and the dogs have a headstone to use = WIN-WIN
Cremate him then put his ashes in a garbage truck!
Put him in a packing crate, tell the parents they have 7 days to come
and get him or arrange for shipping back to Russia. After 7 days, burn
the crate and scatter the ashes over cesspool. I have no idea where
this as anyone's problem other than the parents or family.
Put a granade in his mouth and just pull the pin....no burial needed!!!
So, where were all these comments for Adam Lanza, Wade Michel Page or
Timothy McVeigh? I don't recall protests like this or calls to drop
them into the ocean. What is the difference? I was a little young, but
did we protest Bundy's burial like this? Or Gary Ridgeway's? Or John
Wayne Gacy's? What makes Tamerlan so special?
It's just a dead body.
As a French person, I can't really understand how people can write such awful words.
ReplyDeleteAs a human, neither can I.
ReplyDeleteThe main difference here is that the news media has made it an issue, otherwise he could have been quietly buried without incident. The media never tracked the bodies of Lanza, McVeigh or Gacy, so the disposal of their bodies wasn't even noticed.
ReplyDeleteThe real question should be about why we, the public, are even interested in every slimy detail associated with events such as this and the misspent life of Lindsay Lohan.
McVeigh and Gacy are pre "terror" crazy U.S.
ReplyDeleteLanza and guys who kill tons of people with guns don't get treated as terrorists because Americans are hypocrites and tolerate terror when it's done with a firearm, even if it kills many more. Also, they're Christians.
Paul has it partially right.
ReplyDeleteThe difference here is that we are post 9-11 and we now have social media.
Social media can stir just darn near anything into a frenzy. In the hours and days following the Boston bombing my Facebook page was filled with people wanting the folks responsible caught and punished.
Now that they are caught, it has turned into a new tide of hate for those responsible. I think at least part of this nation's populace is getting fed up with the way things are being handled and want stiffer penalties for those responsible for reprehensible acts such as this.
Religion. Period.
ReplyDeleteMcVeigh, Bundy and Gacy died in prison, I think, and were probably buried there if no family wanted them back... I can't remember any press about it. We have too many unemployed people who have nothing better to do than to rail about stuff like this. And, since the media hardly cover "real" news today, they have nothing better to talk about than stuff like this -- and junk about "celebrities." Try to watch the national news -- it's now 50% news and 50% fluff, if you're lucky.
ReplyDeleteHe's dead. Let the family have that much peace, to bury him.
ReplyDeleteWould they rather cremate him, so we all breathe him. (Yes, I know, but throw the wackos off the trail.)
Even mosques won't bury him because they are afraid that they will be attacked for performing a necessary task. How ridiculous! I heard on NPR that a mosque in Winnipeg has agreed to take his body. The woman responsible for washing the dead there said that it was not her job to judge, but God's. Just goes to show how much Islam is like what Christianity is supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteIt remembers me of the treatment given to enemy bodies on the Iliad. The desacration was an important part of the conflict because they believed the soul would never find peace if the body wasn't properly buried; it was supposed to make the enemy fear death in battle. Tsarnaev probably considered himself a combatant... but some belief in martyrdom probably has him covered anyway.
ReplyDeleteI moved to Boston eight months ago from a city where I'd lived most of my life without a defined cultural identity. Three weeks ago, I found myself locked in my home while the Boston Police combed the city. I'm still undecided whether the whole episode was a vast overreaction, or whether I'm proud to live in a city that doesn't compromise it's search for justice for the sake of making sure the Apple Store was fully staffed. One thing is certain - the things I've seen since have moved me to tears at the generosity of strangers who share only that cultural identity that I've never before had.
ReplyDelete...And then there are these jackasses, who whether I like it or not are also reflective of the low-brow, thuggish aspect of Boston's identity that I've never been fully comfortable with. Fortunately, they are few. While I agree that the media doesn't need to be tripping over itself for the voyeuristic thrill of covering the burial arrangements in the first place, it would also be nice if it didn't give these thugs a platform to perpetuate the kind of hatred and intolerance that helped radicalize the deceased in the first place.
I live in the first town where Bomber #1's body was brought. If the media hadn't made such a big deal out of it, it never would have been an issue. As far as protests, I will point out that the only protester in North Attleboro was a young man with a sign across the street from the funeral home.
ReplyDeleteWhat the funeral homes are doing is their civic duty to society, and that is tending to the dead. That is by no means un-American in any way. They are fulfilling their jobs with the utmost professionalism.
As far as where to bury it? Well, I'll admit, there is that visceral, deep emotional reaction that says, "Don't desecrate our sacred memorials with his remains." Sure, give yourself a few days to rant and vent and calm down. Then think about it. If his body is sent overseas, then they will build a memorial to him and he'll be touted as a hero and his memorial a rallying point for haters who want to kill innocent people. Bury him in an isolated grave in a quiet cemetery in some backwater town, and he will be anonymized and forgotten. Which is the better choice? A third option would be to bury his remains in a prison cemetery. Same solution.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJubal, I delete all comments in which a reader personally insults another reader. Discuss the issues freely and vociferously, but ad hominem attacks are not allowed.
DeleteJust atoms... it is religion that ascribes some sort of mystic quality to a (complex) lump of carbon and water.
ReplyDeleteSeems like it's a coping mechanism for people who can't get hold of their emotions.
i want to know what hatwipe decided this needed to be covered.
ReplyDeletelet's all go out and protest the car service that transports him. and the maker of the burial suit.
i am disgusted with this whole thing, from the git-go.
yes, i'm sure it was very terrible for the people ACTUALLY INVOLVED.
are you sick of hearing about boston's gyrating suckscape of self-righteous survival of this thing?
let's compare with maybe the molasses disaster, which was worse in terms of both life lost and property damage but gets treated as a passing joke.
oh, wait... it wasn't islamic molasses, and the dead were poor people.