================
The Indiana Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Project (INPCRP) needs your help to
collect signatures on a Petition to persuade the Indiana General Assembly to
DO SOMETHING to protect the hundreds (I suspect thousands) of pioneer
cemeteries scattered throughout the state.
The General Assembly will be reconvening soon and we need to collect as many
petition signatures as possible, as quickly as possible, from both inside
and outside the state.
We've discussed here before the pathetic state of Indiana law in this regard
and that fact that, in certain circumstances, it is LEGAL (though
unquestionably morally and ethically reprehensible) to neglect, abuse and
even destroy "abandoned and neglected" pioneer cemeteries.
Most of you will remember the situation here in Clark County, Indiana where
we confirmed that, since 1970, a property owner had PAVED three-fourths of a
pioneer cemetery to construct a parking lot for a strip shopping center and
that, incredible as it may seem, it was all perfectly LEGAL because the
property owner had been paying taxes on the property for many years.
The INPCRP is asking for your assistance in circulating and collecting
signatures on a Petition we have drafted for the Indiana Legislature calling
for revision of current state laws regarding protection and maintenance of
pioneer cemeteries. The Petition, current Indiana statutes regarding
cemeteries and instructions for returning the signed Petitions before
12/31/98 can be found at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp/Petition.PDF
IMPORTANT NOTE:
---------------
You will need free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view and print
the Petition (see
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html).
The software costs nothing and I believe you will find it valuable to have
the program on your system in the future as it is in very widespread use
throughout the Internet.
All you have to do is install the Adobe Acrobat Reader software on your
system, access the Petition.PDF file at the URL listed above and print out
the Petition. Then make as many copies as you need, collect signatures from
your family, friends and acquaintances. When the signatures are returned to
us, we will personally deliver them to a "sympathetic" Legislator to prove
the level of fervent interest in this subject.
We are seeking signatures of people from both inside and OUTSIDE the State
of Indiana. While there is no question that the Legislators will be more
significantly swayed by a strong showing of interest from potential Indiana
VOTERS, we also want to show them the level of interest from OUTSIDE the
State.
If you have questions, I'll try to answer them. Further information on the
Indiana Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Project can be found its brand new home
on Rootsweb at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp
We just moved the site to Rootsweb tonight, so please bear with us while we
get situated in our new home.
Thank you.
Lois Mauk
INPCRP State Coordinator
Dr J A Ballard <john.ballard(a)anu.edu.au>
Graduate School, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Tel +61 2 6249 5487 Fax +61 2 6249 4829