The backlog for burials at Arlington National Cemetery is growing, and it is partly the result of a policy change to grant full final honors to more of America's fallen.
Until early this year, it was rank that determined who was entitled to have more than the standard honors offered to most enlisted troops: uniformed pallbearers, a firing party for rifle salutes, a bugler and a chaplain.
Only those enlisted troops with the rank of chief master sergeant -- or its equivalent -- were permitted to have the extra accoutrements reserved for officers and certain dignitaries: a horse-drawn caisson, military band and escort troops.
In January, the cemetery changed its policy. Now, those who die as a result of enemy action, whatever their rank, are due the full honors.
The change has further stretched cemetery personnel, who can handle only about 30 funerals of all sorts a day. An increasing number of U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan, coupled with the accelerating passing of World War II vets, is translating into delays of two months between the time a funeral is requested and the ceremony is held.
Adding to the delay: The cemetery has the use of only two caissons with horses, which can accompany just four burials a day.
It was a year ago that overseers of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial planned for the National Mall filed a formal request for a construction permit and still no issuance is in sight.
The foundation in charge of building the memorial has been thwarted by National Park Service and arts commissioners' concerns about the security requirements of the site. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation had hoped to complete the 28-foot granite sculpture of King and tree-shaded plaza in 2010.
It will take three ships to transport the massive sculpture, and three accompanying granite pieces, from China, where it is being fabricated, to Washington. The memorial foundation says the sculpture is 80 percent finished. Fundraising so far has collected $106 million of the $120 million needed, the group said.
These are trying times, but not on every front. Violent and property crimes nationwide are at the lowest levels since 1973, when national crime rate data first was collected, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' 2008 national crime victimization survey.
In particular, the overall rate of violent crimes -- rapes or sexual assaults, robberies, aggravated assaults and simple assaults -- fell 41 percent during the past decade alone. Property crimes -- including burglaries, car theft and other thefts -- dropped by 32 percent over the same span.
The Justice Department analysts didn't enumerate reasons for the drop, but criminologists consider tougher sentencing laws to be a big factor.
Perhaps because there are fewer drugs in the medicine cabinet, or parents are counting pills more, adolescent non-medical use of prescription drugs dropped by nearly half a percent, to 2.9 percent of 12-17-year-olds in the government's 2008 survey on drug use and health. Alcohol and cigarette use was also down from 2007 in this age group. But about 8 percent of the nation still uses illicit drugs, a proportion almost unchanged from 2007.
So much for the notion of the Internet as the great democratizer. A new study has found that it is the well off and most educated who are the most politically engaged online.
By far, those in the highest socio-economic classes are more likely to contact a government official, contribute to a candidate, sign a petition or otherwise express civic or political sentiments, according to a study by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, which called itself "surprised" at the results.
"The Internet has not so far alleviated one of the most troubling aspects of political life in the U.S.: the decidedly upper-class accent of the chorus of active citizens," report co-author Sidney Verba said.
(SHNS science and health correspondent Lee Bowman contributed to this column. E-mail him at bowmanl(at)shns.com and Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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