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Mike Moser A tradition to gain Just the other day a lady told me about coming
to Crossville years ago to attend the funeral of a friend and
how that short trip changed her life. She was touched by one
of our Southern customs and while that is not the sole reason
her family chose to move here, it certainly made her comfortable
with the decision. Traveling from the church to the cemetery
through the beautiful countryside of Cumberland she observed
cars pulling off the roadway and stopping in a display of reverence
and respect. "That's nice," she thought. As the procession made its way to the rural
burial place, it passed a lone farmer mowing his pasture. The
farmer brought his tractor to a stop as the procession passed,
slowly rose from his seat and silently stood, placing his hat
over his heart. "That was special," the lady told
me. "He didn't know us. Didn't know who had died but he
knew it was somebody and that meant a lot to me." I was born in Ohio, spent my early years in
Iowa and Minnesota and finished high school in Alabama. As an
adult I returned to Ohio to work at a suburban newspaper in the
Dayton area, but I returned after a couple of years and have
been in Crossville since February 1984. It is my choice because I happen to like the
Southern gentility, and stopping out of respect for funeral processions
is part of that culture. It is one of the colloquialisms that separate
living in the South from other parts of the country and I am
here because this is comfortable for me ... I don't wish to change
it ... just celebrate it. Most Tennesseans do not realize that the time-honored
custom of pulling over and stopping for an oncoming funeral procession
is illegal. There is a movement in the Tennessee General Assembly
to change that and make it legal for motorists to show their
respect. Presently the law states traffic moving in
the direction of the funeral procession must yield to it, and
it is also illegal to cross through a funeral procession from
a side street. Associated Press reporter Duncan Mansfield
offered a funny aside in his report on the proposal passing the
Senate by a 31-0 vote when he wrote, "Conventional thinking
is that the (Sen. Tim of Knoxville) Burchett bill will appeal
mostly to rural Tennessee, not the major cities where life is
often too busy to stop for the living or the dead." When discussing the present law that makes
it illegal to stop for funeral processions, State Rep. Dewayne
Bunch said he doesn't know anyone who has been ticketed for the
offense. "I dare say any sheriff or city police officer
who gives a ticket for this wouldn't stay in office very long,"
he said. The new law does not make it a duty to stop.
Instead, it makes it legal for those of us who wish to show respect
to the grieving families. Of all the things coming out of Nashville, I think this is a good bill. It's our way of life. And you know, there is nothing wrong with teaching our children how to show respect to and have compassion for others. |