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Should profanity (whatever that is) be allowed on gravestones?
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May 9th, 2013
Assumption #1 – there is something called profanity. The definition is probably not shared by all, but I imagine that there is general agreement that some words are more offensive than others.
Assumption #2 – some people will want to be buried and not cremated.
This question is not about which words are offensive and why, and it is not about the merits of burial versus cremation.
Today’s Times http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/05/09/us/ap-us-odd-headstone-profanity.html?hp reported on a controversy in Massachusetts. Apparently a rap musician died and his family wanted to have the lyrics of one of his songs inscribed on the headstone. Some of the words are considered ‘profane’. An argument ensued, and the cemetery commissioners nixed the so called offensive words.
My questions: Is that proper? Who is gravestone for? If that is how the family wishes to remember the departed, is it the role of the cemetery owners to forbid that? Who benefits from censorship of the stone?
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