Cemeteries...would it kill people to try?

After having a chance to wander around Pioneer Square cemetery and make some observations while compiling data for our project, I came to this conclusion...our cemeteries suck. Apparently I've never actually  LOOKED around a cemetery. Now, Pioneer Square might be an extra bad example as it's basically become a place for kids to smoke cigarettes while skipping school or for people to do drugs and shadowbox, but man, that place is a downer. First off, it has this ridiculously huge church looming over it...not usually a good time for anyone. Secondly, it looks awful. I know there have been attempts to clean it up but wow, it's still brutally depressing. I'll admit, most of the people interred here died in the late 1800's so it's not like they'll be getting a lot of visits, but pretty much every marker was in complete disrepair. I suppose if I went to one of the new cemeteries I'd be more impressed as I'm sure that the cost of burial in a fancy cemetery includes "greens fees" but they generally look so crappy that it got me wondering...do people even go to cemeteries? Here are a couple pics from Pioneer Square...

Ugh...depressing...

 Yuck...

No wonder no one comes here...everything is falling apart and covered in moss. I literally expected the boney hand of death to bust out of the ground at any second...

OK, just for interests sake...what about this local cemetery in my Japanese hometown of Matsuyama, Japan...

No kidding, I would eat off the ground here, it was cleaner than most of our hospitals...

So there you have it...a nice, clean cemetery...and guess what? People were always there and it was always clean. Not only did people visit, but by taking such good care of everything, it at least gave the impression that people cared. To be clear, I'm not saying Japanese people actually care more but at least they gave that impression (that is a whole cultural anthropology paper in itself...). Also, the people keeping this cemetery nice and clean weren't groundskeepers...they were the ACTUAL RELATIVES OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE BURIED THERE! I guess what I'm saying in rambly, weird way, is that our cemeteries don't suggest any actual respect for the dead. Or maybe they do and I really don't spend enough time hanging out in cemeteries to make that assumption. Either way, paying someone to cut the grass and pick up sticks off your grandmas grave says, to me, that you don't care enough to do it yourself. So maybe if people actually cared more, cemeteries might be more fun places to visit...just a thought. Also, if we got to see things like this in places of remembrance, I bet people would put in a little effort to respect the dead...