Josh Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, wonders whether the funeral procession really needs to be treated as something untouchably sacred like football or pumpkin pie or monster-large cars.
Bill Mayeroff is a blogger at ChicagoNow.com who wrote a post questioning the practice of funeral processions. It was picked up by the funeral-industry news aggregator site, ConnectingDirectors.com. All comments [sic].
“Let me guess, Bill Mayeroff is: 1. A baby boomer 2. A narcissist 3. An idiot.”
“I think this blogger should have this discussion face to face with the thousands of people who mourned and processed with any number of our fallen soldiers.”
“Although the article is so sophmoric that it doesnt earn the time of a reply, I feel I have to. It is all about respect of the dead. Something that the author probably knows very little about. He is an NPR listening, liberal, candy ass moron.”
“In today’s society, death rituals, etc. are often viewed as “inconvenient” to those involved. But, death should NOT be convenient – if it is, that person’s life didn’t mean much.”
So, commenters have established that Bill Mayeroff is a narcissistic, soldier-hating, un-patriotic baby boomer with a candy ass he keeps glued to National Public Radio in between ruining everyone’s Grief Work(TM). Except no, they haven’t. I too question the place of funeral processions. Many undertakers would say that’s because I’m an anti-funeral director outside agitator who hates sentiment and religion and wants to force families to bake-and-shake their loved ones. Or something.
I’m not quite sure what the issue is here. Perhaps I’m reading crooked. In my neck of the woods people generally stop for funeral processions, but that’s because they tend to know their neighbours. Like taking off your hat at a funeral, this seems to be the decent thing to do. Of course, once upon a time, in Canada, you could identify a funeral procession because everyone had their headlights on. But now it’s the law. We have our headlights one all the time. It reduces the number of accidents significantly. So it’s now hard to tell whether there is a funeral procession or not. It seems now to be something out of the past. It seems right to acknowledge another’s loss, but perhaps, now, just those who attend the funeral and proceed to the cemetery are enough. Perhaps everyone does not have to acknowledge the grief of those we do not know. It’s an odd situation. We want, I think, to acknowledge the significance of death to others. especially those who are mourning. But society has become so much greater now, and we need to acknowledge that only a few will know or acknowledge the passing of someone not known. Perhaps we have to rethink this, especially in urban areas. It’s really a function of the increased size of our communities. It should not be thought to show disrespect those who have died or to those who mourn.
The linked article provides an illustration of the potential problems. I’ve seen the same problems myself.
(BTW and O/T, the reduction in crashes in Canada with always on headlights was 5.3%; that’s good but not great. No reduction in severity of crashes.)
In my part of the world, the practice is for people to give the right of way ( and stop when meeting) to the Hearse, any other cars associated with the funeral home, and perhaps the next few cars. I have never seen any go through an intersection against the light unless directed by a police officer. This usually only happens for a well known or public figure.
Of course, that doesn’t help when you are stuck behind a kilometre of vehicles.
I liked the accusation of being a Baby Boomer. I’m not sure if that means that anybody younger than age 69 is a no-good-commie-pinko-latte-drinking-metrosexual, or that anybody over the age of 48 is a fossilized-privileged-time-to-get-put-out-to-pasture-has-been. But, I mean, accusing someone of being a parent or grandparent — as an insult — is…..just……funny.
I’m appalled that mourners think it’s okay to run a red light. I guess charges of selfishness are subjective.
It has been years since I’ve seen, or been in, a funeral procession. At my parent’s funerals folks were given directions to the cemetery. Years ago my parents were hit by a car while going through an intersection. The car was totaled but fortunately my mother walked away with only a broken collar bone. It is definitely past time for having these processions unless the family is willing to pay for police protection.