Portland Maine - The Desecration Capitol of the World

Portland Maine: The Desecration Capitol of the World

By Paul O'Neill, June 23, 2000

The “off-leash dog park” that is known as the Western Cemetery and was treated with the dignity and respect due a cemetery in a more civilized and respectful time has over the years been subjected to severe neglect and vandalism. Unfortunately this is the case with many older cemeteries. The Western Cemetery is Portland Maine’s second oldest cemetery and was Portland’s primary burial ground, from 1829 until about 1852 and was active until 1910. There has been a burial as recently as 1987.

Many of the Irish people who had to immigrate during the “Great Hunger” in Ireland in the mid 1800’s are buried in the Catholic Ground of the Western Cemetery. On Sunday August 15, 1999 Division 1 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Portland dedicated a stone marking the Catholic Ground on one side and remembering the Famine Irish on the other side. There are still some people who respect cemeteries.

What makes the Western Cemetery case so indefensible is the fact it has not just simply been neglected, it is being deliberately, actively, systematically and relentlessly desecrated with the city’s blessing. The City of Portland has designated the Western Cemetery not a park but an “off-leash dog park”. This means that instead of spending a few dollars to fence in an appropriate area for dog walking and running, dog-owners are invited to and encouraged to bring their dogs into the Western Cemetery to romp all over and relieve themselves on people’s graves.

The dog-owners that make up Portland Maine’s infamous “Doggy Brigade” file into the cemetery starting at the crack of dawn to launch their daily assault on the graves. Grave desecration is wrong and it is a pity that the city can find so many depraved people willing to stoop so low as to put their pets, their dogs in a situation where they can’t help taking part in this disgusting activity. Portland Maine being the extremely progressive city, it is has scored a noteworthy first that puts it far ahead of it’s time. The city of Portland is the first city in the United States and perhaps the world to adopt grave desecration as city policy. If you visit Portland’s web site you will see in the dog regulations that the Western Cemetery is one of those places where you can let your dog loose. Dogs are a wonderful pet and they should not be put into a situation where they will be desecrating graves. Dogs don’t belong in a cemetery!

The State of Maine recently passed a law that requires every town and city to decorate veteran’s graves with a flag on Memorial Day. If the Western Cemetery remains the dog toilet that it is now this will add flag desecration to the city’s wonderful list of policies making Portland, Maine truly the desecration capital of the world!

Portland has a city government that sorely needs to be informed or reminded that even in “this day and age” cemeteries are sacred and should be treated with dignity and respect and that grave desecration and flag desecration are wrong and are not an appropriate city policy. To subject a cemetery to grave desecration is heinous enough but to also use it as a place where our nation’s flag will annually be desecrated is just outragous.

Please help to bring the Portland City government back to their senses. Write a letter today!

For the Portland City Hall, send your letters to:

City of Portland
City Hall
389 Congress Street
Portland, ME 04101

Send your e-mail to:
Mcd@ci.portland.me.us

If you would prefer to write a “Letter to the Editor”. Send it to The Portland Press Herald (Portland’s Daily). The maximum length is 250 words and you should send it to:

Voice of the People
Portland Press Herald
P.O. Box 1460
Portland, ME 04104-5009

Or e-mail it to: Letters@pressherald.com

- Paul O'Neil

Paul is the President of Division 1 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Portland Maine, and is leading a campaign to return dignity and respect to the Western Cemetery. Contact Paul at: Galway376@cs.com

Update!

December 12, 2000: Paul O'Neil has written an update regarding the situation with Western Cemetery. Click here to read on!

Reader Responses

06-28-2000, [Shelia Sanford] "In my Maine upbringing a grave yard was a place set apart as sacred. So scrupulous were our forebears that my dear old Maine grandmother viewed stepping on a grave as disrespectful and to this day I do not do so. When tending the final resting place of a loved one, I kneel. Fortunately for me none of my dearly departed rest in Western Cemetery. The phrases I have used "dearly departed, loved ones, final resting place" are more than random words. They are instantly recognizable as solemn and reverent, entrenched in the language as words of respect, and at the same time, inextricably linked to the very concept of a cemetery. The city of Portland is the city of Longfellow, the forest city, a place synonymous in the minds of our people with taste and refinement. Are the city Fathers (and, one would suppose, the city Mothers) so lacking in sensitivity, in common decency, as to designate a cemetery as a place to exercise one's dog, knowing what that connotes? Even supposing they came from away, just how far away would that be? Somewhere on the other side of the moon?"
07-02-2000, [Torrey Welch] "My family lived in and around Portland and southern coastal Maine for nearly 300 years. I was born in Portland 61 years ago, and have always been proud of my hometown. Until now! Although I am living about 3,000 miles away from there now, the stench of Portland bureaucrats allowing the hallowed grounds of any cemetary to be used as an "off-leash dog park" has reached my nostrils. It is not so much the smell of the dogs and their "off-leash" activities that offends, it is the awful stink generated the "official" scumbags who allow and encourage these actions. Separation of Church and State gone mad. May they all roast in Hell! Just another fine case of "Your government in action". I hope they all have a fine "off-leash" day. Torrey A. Welch [a FORMERLY proud "Maineiac"]"
07-03-2000, [David Podmajersky] "As a dog owner and genealogy hobbyist, it disgusts me that anyone would feel it necessary to allow dogs into a cemetery. I think we as a species have really "lost it" when we do these "PC" sorts of things to the detriment of human beings as a whole and the memories of specific individuals in particular. Which species is pet and which is truly master?"
07-03-2000, [ROBERT C DURGIN] "AS MANY OF THE NAMES IN THAT GRAVE YARD MAY BE NAME SAKES OF MINE AND MY RELATIVES I RESENT THE FACTS AS IT IS DESCRIBED. I WOULD HOPE THAT THE DOG LOVERS ARE BURIED IN THAT SAME CEMETERY AND ARE SUBJECT TO THE SAME TREATMENT. - BOB IN CALIFORNIA"
07-16-2000, [Joan Wertman] "As a resident of Maine, I am shocked that the city government of Portland would institute this policy and even more shocked by the citizens who would take their dogs to this cemetery and deface these graves. Would they take their dogs to THEIR cemetery and let this happen to the graves of THEIR ancestors? It is totally reprehensible."
07-21-2000, [Mark Lehman] "Gee gang, if these folks clean up after their animals I might enjoy the added company. I'm beginning to consider a stone with a water dish attached."
07-23-2000, [Mona Bross Hylton] "While I have not found that any of my ancestors ever lived in Maine, I am appalled that such desecration is allowed. It could happen anywhere. I do know that the Woodland Cemetery in Newark, NJ--where my dad's mother and her family are buried--has been desecrated also, but in a different way. Hopefully, the "tables" there have had a turnaround. I empathize with those in Portland Maine who have family buried in Western Cemetery."
07-23-2000, [Laura Butler] "I sent the folllowing reply off immediately: I have recently heard of the city of Portland allowing a cemetery to be the watering hole of the local dog owners. If this is true, I find this act despictable. As a genealogist, I would like to be able to go to a cemetery and not have to watch where I walk. I dont want to see our soldiers flags all worn and taggered because some male dog has lifted their leg one to many times and the material has rotten from urine. Its a sad day in America when we can protect the resting areas of those people who fought so gallantly and gave their lives for this nation to become the greatest country in the world. I can't imagine how any government official can sleep at night, knowing that he is responsible for this cemetery to become a giant kennel. I hate to say it but something tramatic is going to happen and the city is going to be slapped with the biggest lawsuit they have ever seen. With all these dogs running loose, someone is going to get in the middle of a dog fight and get bitten, mauled, or even worse died from injuries sustained from a dog attack."
03-06-2001, [Roxy Gajda] "As a resident of Portland, I have some first hand knowledge of what has happened to the Western Cemetary. Years ago the cemetary was a place where drug dealers sold their products and prostitutes sold themselves. Drunks called it home and nobody dared go in the cemetary at any time for fear of being harmed. The city police did patrol the area, but the cemetary is gated and only accessible by foot and therefore the patrols did not help. I recall 2 rapes occuring in the cemetary. In general it was an unsafe place in the nicest part of Portland. The city ofered no monies to maintain the property.
Things changed years ago however. Dog owners started bringing their pets to the cemetary for excersise. What happened next is clear as dayligh. The increase of law-abiding people unsing the cemetary increased and the illegal activity want away. The cemetary was a place for animals to runn off leash and for a community of owners to grow. This community banded together on a regular basis to clean the park and insure it remained a beautiful place. Owners carried bags to pick up any droppings. Funds were even raised to place a bag dispenser at the entrance to nsure that if someone forgot to bring a bag, there would always be one handy. I used to visit the cemetary years ago and enjoyed the quiet walks with my puppy. I actually even met someone who became the most important person in my life while at the cemetary.

I hear you all speak of desecration and I simply do not understand it. Some people have taken an unsafe and unused piece of land back from the bad people in Portland. It is now a place where the public can visit without worry. It is a place for ideas to be exchanged, dogs to run free, and lives to be changed. A cemetary should not be a place of sadness. It is a place for rememberance and a place for life. If our ancestors spirits can see what is happening, I feel they would be joyful about the sense of community the cemetary has brought the West End.

To end with an update: As of June 1, 2001 dogs will no longer be allowed in the cemetary. With the city pledging no monies once again for the upkeep, I can only see the cemetary falling back into the hands evil. I think our ancestors will be ashamed of our decision."