America has always been a country that practiced representative democracy according to our constitution and that type of government has never been as apparent as when I noticed two articles dealing with decisions at cemeteries, or potential cemeteries, of differing governmental levels.

The first article I noticed comes to us in an article you can read here from the White Mountain Independent Central News of Arizona.  It originally notes the positive vote to open another section of the Reed Hatch Memorial Cemetery that would number 1280 plots.  The White Mountain area of Arizona is a rural area in the northeastern part of the state bordering New Mexico.

There was nothing dramatic about the opening of a new cemetery area but as I read the article it was fascinating to me about the issues discussed and decided on and gave me this sense of democratic decision making that would be similar to how decisions were made during an earlier part of our country’s history.

The article goes into some detail on discussions about monuments and their height, the idea of requiring burial vaults or not requiring them, and eventually the decision to purchase a new mini-excavator for use in digging graves.

A second article I saw was entitled “Fairbank’s veterans’ cemetery may not survive state budget”.  This article, that you can read here, dealing with the establishment of a Veterans’ Cemetery near Fairbanks illustrated how government is ran on a larger scale in our democracy.  Apparently, funds had been budgeted in a preliminary 2020 budget to move this cemetery forward.  However, new Governor Mike Dunleavy, elected in November 2018, has decided to slice that money out of his 2020 budget.

The cemetery would have been interior Alaska’s only  veterans’ cemetery.  Multiple Fairbanks legislators had made a push for the cemetery according to the article.  Rep. Grier Hopkins commented, “We had received an outpouring from the veterans in the Interior and rural Alaska who want to be buried with the recognition that they served their country.  Seeing it cut without letting people know or talking to veterans is disheartening.

According to the article, the Fairbanks area has an estimated 13,900 veterans residing within 75 miles of the proposed cemetery.

In any regard, I just found it interesting that on the small local cemetery issues representative democracy allowed all to speak and a decision was made.  In another area of representative democracy, on the state level, budgetary decisions were made with many affected people not even knowing that those decisions were being made. When you look at it in that light, just think how things must get done in Washington, DC.

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