I think I am finding myself in a conundrum.@@Oh, poor you.@@
A few weeks ago, Facilities Services interim manager of operations and maintenance Tim King was interviewed as part of a story we ran on safety in the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery. @@http://dailyemerald.com/2012/01/25/negative-impression-of-nearby-graveyard-stems-from-murky-past/@@
“We feel it’s inappropriate,” he was quoted as saying, “to put lighting into the cemetery.”
This quote followed how students have been questioning why the city or the University refuse to put lights up throughout the 16 acres of land.
Of course, this refusal comes after the fact that even though there have not been a “great” number of reported assaults, assaults have happened, according to Department of Public Safety Cpt. Ed Rinne.
However, this “not a great number” sent up a red flag in my mind.
Assaults — like the girl who was sexually assaulted on Nov. 15 — are happening, and DPS is only relying on those that are reported. What of the others, too, who do not report?
I am not criticizing the fact that much work has been done in the area, especially by the cemetery caretaker George Dull.
But even he admits that the cemetery is “not safe.” Elaborating further in the same story, Dull said, “You could scream all day, and no one would hear you.”
That, in my mind, is crazy.
It seems as if, even with his 20 years of upkeep of the area — including help from Facilities Services — the cemetery is still a place to be appropriately worried about, to say the very @@yes, a kitten just died // and I helped you murder it, but its death is going to a good cause///thx@@least.
King himself admits that he “would not want to walk through there at night.”
I mean, common sense is just screaming, “At a bare minimum, put some lights in the damn cemetery!”
But for some reason, the city and University believe it is inappropriate, thinking doing so would be disruptive to the graves but also that it might encourage more illegal activity.
What?
It is already not safe by being dark and unpatrolled. How would putting up lights and patrolling it make it less safe than it already is?
After I read this story, I wrote a friend of mine in Oslo, Norway, and asked him if he could do some research. Namely, if he would be willing to check out the cemeteries in the city to see how — or if — they were lit up. I remember what the ones I walked through on the way to school were like, but I wanted a larger sample.
A little over a week later, he wrote me back — his conclusion being the same as my memories: The graveled paths running through the cemeteries are lit up, but the area where the graves are laid, which are fenced off with 4-foot-high fences, are not.
That makes sense.
Having had cemeteries around much longer than the United States has been in existence, it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point in time Oslo was faced with a similar situation Eugene and the University are facing now.@@snooty pants@@
Lighting up the paths and putting up fences to protect the graves seems a simple solution on a multitude of levels.
The lights in Pioneer don’t even have to be in every inch of the whole 16 acres. Just set them up on the graveled paths used. Think about it: Even in winter, the dark settles in around 4 p.m.
Lights in the area will also allow University and city officers to patrol the area. Fences would keep the graves from being disrupted.
But to use the excuse that it is “inappropriate” to light up graves even as people are being assaulted is, well — I just have to shake my head at that rationale. Makes no sense. Such inaction is completely irresponsible and does not a thing to build my trust.
I think the safety of the students in this area takes a higher priority over whether lighting up paths in a cemetery is inappropriate or not.