my opinion

And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.

And all things shall be in commotion; and surely men's hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people. (D&C 88:91)

As I watch telecast after telecast of the coverage of this past week's devastation, I am being told what I see is worse than a war zone, worse than the Tsunami, worse than the Twin Towers. All this is being blamed on "Katrina" and her coup de main , when in reality perhaps the chaos and real damage is a little more home grown.

Children being raped and then shot and left to die and rot in front of their parents. Elderly neglected. Abuse by hoodlums. The near dead being taken to the morgue so that they can die, without aide and alone, but with some form of dignity is hard to wrap my thoughts around. The dead being left to decay in the buildings, streets and waters so that the living can be attended to with basic human necessities. The survivors living in human waste, dying literally of thirst.

I see elderly men openly crying because they left their own families to try and help others and now cannot find anyone they even know. Babies under blankets lay dead in the street. Bloated bodies buoying in the water, marking the flood level with their death, float by the homes they dearly loved.

Mass confusion from those who should (did?) have plans in place, left standing wondering what to do, and where to go, and how to start resolving this overwhelming situation. I hear the accusations and see the fingers pointing to ill prepared officials. I hear the remarks of hurting people who feel they were led to slaughter because they were the poor or "non white". I see folks trying to help only to get verbal abuse for not doing enough or being less than adequate. City leaders and protectors who saw too much and whose hearts failed them to the point of suicide make me cold inside.

I hear their stories. The good people, who through inability or pride (does it really matter now?) stayed and were hoping to ride through this storm and trusted in their neighbors. I am sure they understood the danger and some even knew they would never go home; however none went into shelter knowing they would live through such "friendly fire" terrorism that was inflicted upon them via the gangs who were confined with them. Thousands of people, even military in helicopters, controlled by less than a hundred teenage/early twenties young "men" who joined together in their quest for evil and delayed help when it did arrive. Gangs who turned on their own people shooting and looting and fighting to take over the city which gave them birth so that they could prosper in rage and iniquity. Callus minions who have succumbed to the most base of behaviors.

It makes me look back a year when Thor and I were guests of this city. We stayed in the Hyatt Regency that is literally linked to the Super Dome. During our stay we took a drive to see the city. We took our New Orleans Tourist Guide book as a resource of where to go and what to see. We were curious about the cemeteries and thought we'd go for a look. According to the Guide book published and distributed by the city, warnings were given to avoid going into certain cemeteries -even during the daylight hours- because they were frequented by persons who were known to beat, rob, and "worse" anyone who they came upon. Cemeteries are a high risk tourist stop and they recommended tourists and others stay away from Cemeteries #_, #_, and #_ without secure escorts or with a small controlled group and professional and certified guide. 2 of these cemeteries were located quite near the Super Dome.

Thor and I thought that perhaps driving by them would be o.k. as we wouldn't be going inside and would not be in harm's way inside a moving vehicle outside the gates, in the street. Not so. As we drove down a particular street (not at the cemetery yet) at 10:30 a.m. we were immediately greeted by young men with bats and other rods who began to gather in from of our car in an intimidating manner. By the time we reached the center of the block 10-15 men had already begun to block the street ahead of us, the street behind us already being blocked . Thor mentioned that we would not be going anywhere further but directly out of this area and began to drive quite fast as we almost hit the men as they refused to move out of the street, some actually banging the rear of the car as we past. It was meant to scare us and it did.

These are the neighborhoods from which many refused to evacuate before the storm and are refusing still. These are the neighborhoods from which we are hearing the stories of gang rapes and child abuse as the norm prior to the storm. (such as in M*'s comment #15, "Barbarians" post) These are the neighborhoods that have subjected themselves to years of dependence upon social aid and lack of education and self-reliance. The same neighborhoods where police and fire refuse to go after the sun sets because of the violence and lack of respect for the law. These are the people who choose violence as a way of life and lawlessness as a creed. These few are controlling the many. Drugs, alcohol, lasciviousness, lewd acts, and lack of respect for anything or anyone rule these few people. They have no faith, no God, no higher power or authority to answer to.

These people's hearts have waxed cold and dark and seem fixed upon the ill things in this world. They thrive on the confusion and fear. They are like roaches that come out in the dark to feed upon the scum and scatter in the Light. These are they, "who did infest the land; for so strong were their holds and their secret places that the people could not over power them; therefore they did commit many murders, and did so much slaughter among the people." (3 Nephi 1:27) "Imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and deceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again, insosmuch as he did blind their eyes and lead them away to believe that the Doctrine of Christ was a foolish and a vain thing." (3 Nephi 2:2)

I am not saying "prophecy has been fulfilled", or that "the end is near!"; however, the Book of Mormon has shown us the cycles and we are in the midst of them. Again today, I hear that snipers are shooting at those who would take people to safety. This has nothing to do with race or economic favoritism. These "people" are lost of any human Spirit and they have nothing but evil running through them.

The media is focusing on the problems and calling the blame Katrina or political neglect. The good people of New Orleans (and elsewhere) have been relocated. Yes some of them complained about their situations and were less than thankful. However, they are using verbal weapons to vent their frustrations. I am more concerned about those who still refuse to leave, to allow volunteers to clean up their homes and rebuild their city, and who continue to try and kill anyone who comes to close.

Surely we are headed towards that day when men's hearts will fail them; and if we are not more Spiritually prepared we will fail as well.

For Whom the Bell Tolls...

While reading the Wednesday post of The Golden Road to Samarqand, Amira wrote of her love and interest in cemeteries. After reading several of the comments on that post I realized I am among friends who all have an affinity towards the history and culture of cemeteries.

Recently Thor and I were afforded the opportunity to travel to New Orleans. I had a couple of friends who had been there and also know a friend who served his mission there. Anyone I asked suggested we take a cemetery tour.

Thor wasn't available to go on tours as he was in seminars. I decided to ask a friend if she wanted go. She became very nervous about the cemetery tour but suggested we stick to the tour bus that went through the city. I will exclude the points of the tour and our guide except for the parts he explained as we went to cemetery #3 (if I am remembering correctly). The following is what I gleaned from our tour guide.

New Orleans is wet. Very wet. And due to the nature of the swamp land, humidity, and general landscape of the Delta Region provisions and laws needed to be established and are in place to this day to a certain degree. The land is saturated by all of this moisture so much so that the land itself sinks at the rate of an inch per year if not halted by man.

Back in the day, the law was set at burial needing to be done within 48 hours of the deceased finality. The body would be cleansed, dressed, and readied for the family crypt. Little or no embalming would take place. If it was used in the preparations, a special fluid was used so that the body would only be "suspended" for a minimal time. The law stated the body needed to decompose quickly. A body would be placed in a crypt for a minimum of 365 complete days.
A family would purchase cemetery land as the family plot. Calculations were made as too how much land a family could afford and how much they would need. Land was and is expensive, so a family would try to figure out just how many members could die within a certain "year" and plan accordingly within their financial means. The land being wet, an indicator of one's wealth would be the size of the crypt and how high off the ground it would rise before entry.

monuments of angels
Originally uploaded by S'mee.

The larger the crypt and the higher the stairs to enter the more wealth you had. One exception was the single crypt that stated in literal stone that whoever was buried there would be there "for eternity". This was a clue to those around that the crypt would not be shared.

Shared? Yes. Let's say you have a family plot and build a crypt large enough to house four tombs. What do you do when the fifth member of the family dies? Well, you throw Auntie Prudence down the family pit and move in Uncle Cleatus. This is accomplished rather cleverly.

out with the old in with the new
Originally uploaded by S'mee.

This photo is a great visual for the process. You can see in the photo that the crypt is built from brick. This was part of the law. Because of the plague and other diseases, bodies were required to be encased in brick, and sealed with concrete (lower right tomb) for the first 365. In this crypt there are 6 tombs, each (originally) with a facade of marble for genealogical information. As one body would complete there term the facade would be removed. This exposed the brick, which would be disassembled and exposed the casket. The caskets were made so that once the body had decayed, the ends could be removed. Auntie Prudence's remains, usually just bones, would then be pushed out of the casket via the open foot end and then would drop into the pit that was below each crypt, once there, Auntie Prudence would be taken into the earth naturally by Mother Nature over the years.
This particular crypt is in decay, most likely because the family who shares this plot have moved on to another area in the country and economics being what they are currently, they can afford to buried elsewhere.

neglect and nature
Originally uploaded by S'mee.

In this photo, you can see that neglect has exposed this crypt (in the center rear) to the elements and decay has set in, almost to the point where total reconstruction will need to take place. The crypt held three tombs. What we are viewing in this photo is the back of the tomb where much of the "work" was accomplished. It is a good photo in that it shows the extra length in the crypt and the construction that allows the process to happen. You can see the roof line, then a dark rectangular piece; that dark rectangle is actually and open part of the tomb, exposing the inner area of the top tomb. Broken and tumbling bricks are falling over due to gravity and into the area built to accommodate the falling bones. Exposure to the weather has evidently filled the open spaces of this crypt with enough soil, debris, etc, that plants are now filling the space. Although, in my limited knowledge, I think this would happen rather easily if not constantly maintained as we saw many city buildings that had ferns just growing into the exterior walls - many of them several stories up. Finding a crack in a wall is all it takes for a seed to find its' new home.

Also in this photo is a great example of a family plot whose finances were meager. Saying that, I somehow think this is where my family would have been buried. Perhaps in the old south this was a poor person, maybe today it would be the lower middle class? This is a ground level crypt. It has the cement borders and the tomb on the left still has the cement casing on the top. The wrought iron fence was there to show respect, but also to keep animals and visitors from walking on the crypt in an attempt to preserve the structure. Due to the level of the tombs, more than likely the caskets would have deteriorated right along with the body and sunk into the earth at a rapid rate.

The poor were left to rent community crypts. Essentially these were made of brick and usually made as the structure that surrounded the cemetery, looking like a tall, wide and thick brick wall. The front of the community crypts were built similar to the others with a false front and labeling system for identification. These crypts could also be rented for a one year (or more if needed) period by families whose plot was filled, but not legally able to be opened and rearranged to accommodate the new dead. Let's say Auntie Prudence was buried on May 24, 1823. She took her place in the vault. One more space was available and then Uncle Cleatus died two days later on May 26, 1823. Uncle Cleatus would take the last available space. Now because all the spaces are filled the family would hope no one would die until May 25 of 1824. Knowing that Gramma Jed had died earlier that same year, January 10, 1823 his space would become available on January 11, 1824 but he cannot be disturbed for 365 days. So when Gramma Edwina died May 30, 1823 she would have no where to go except the rental crypt. She also would have to stay there for the required 365 days; so if someone dies after her, say on February 28, 1824 they could slip in the family crypt BEFORE Gramma Edwina, because the Grampa could then be removed and she take his place for free. This would leave Edwina waiting for another available tomb in the family plot, extending her stay with the "undesirables" in the city plot.

nature finds a way
Originally uploaded by S'mee.

This is a photo that explains just what Nature is capable of. The arches on the bottom of the photo are actually the top of the tombs' "headstone"s, showing that this land has sunk considerably since the time of construction. The guide here told listeners that this area sank at the level of 1 inch annually. These tombs' headstones were originally at average eye level for an easy identification. Nature finds a way of recovering what is hers.