Happy holidays, Masonic Lodge

With 2006 nearing an end, I imagine that members of the Masonic Lodge have completed a year of good deeds that they are proud of. Isn’t it a shame that they have been neglectful of persons closer to home? This is evident by the disregard for families with loved ones in the Fallbrook Masonic Cemetery, particularly for disabled family members. To lock the drive-in access on weekends is wrong. To do so at Christmastime shows a total lack of respect for people who have trusted them.

On Saturday, December 23, a call was made to Berry-Bell & Hall Mortuary to inquire if drive-in cemetery access would be allowed at this special time. Mr. Dave Marvin advised that the gates would be locked until December 26 and they had no control over the situation because access is being restricted by the Masons. He also advised that Jay Bell (no relation to Berry-Bell & Hall) was the Masonic spokesman to be contacted in regard to the locked gates. A call to him was picked up by an answering machine. We might guess as to whether he was taking Christmas flowers to loved ones at an accessible cemetery.

However, it is not guesswork that the Masons have, apparently, not considered hiring anyone for the few minutes it would take to open and close the gates on a weekend or holiday, not improved access for people with walkers or wheelchairs, not added gates at opposite ends of the property for the convenience of visitors to those areas and have not provided safe street side parking.

They may argue that the cemetery is private property, which gives them a right to restrict visitor access. I think that they have limited their rights by being in the business of selling, for very good prices, many plots on that land as well as adding a perpetual care charge. I also think, since the cemetery is a business, that their omission in providing accessibility for disabled persons on the only days that some people can be there, especially holidays, might be unlawful. I wonder what the ACLU might think.

Bonnie Wright