If you haven’t heard about what happened in Alsip, well, you’re living under a rock.  Seriously.  I know it has made national news, and since it is quite close to where we live, I’ve gotten emails on my thoughts.  As far as I know, we don’t know anyone buried there.  That being said — this whole thing makes me ill.  I never thought I’d agree with Jesse Jackson, but there was a statement he made on the news that we can all stand behind:  “there is a special place in hell for these people”.  For those of you who don’t know, 4 employees of the Burr Oak Cemetery have been arrested for taking bodies out of graves, reselling the gravesite, and pocketing the cash.

I recently wrote a post about respecting the dead.  Well, leaving them to rest in peace falls into that.  I cringe when I watch the news and hear the new things they find.  Last nights news reported that the entire Babyland section (where they bury infants) is gone.  Gone.  Just typing that makes me sick to my stomach.  I cannot imagine losing a child and then reliving it all over again like these families are.  Since the Cook County Sheriff’s Department pretty much arrested all the staff there, they are running the cemetery.  I do have to say I think they are doing the best they can under the circumstances.  I am pretty sure scenarios like this are not in any training.  Last night, they closed the entire cemetery and made the entire place a crime scene.  Over 30 FBI agents have been called in to assist in sorting through the mass grave that was found (including ones that helped out in Serbia).  Last I heard, 300 graves were disturbed, and they think the actual count is higher.

My heart goes out to those who have loved ones in that cemetery.  I cannot imagine the heartache, the grief, and the anger that those people must feel.  This is a case that I wish the death penalty was still around for.