Photo provided Gravestones were vandalized at the Freeland Cemetery.

WICK — Freeland Cemetery on Freeland Run between Sancho and Wick was recently vandalized.

Four headstones in the Freeland Family Cemetery appear to have been broken that had not previously been broken. Those headstones are for: Adam Freeland (son of Ben Freeland and Nancy Eleanor Ice Freeland), Bertha Freeland (daughter of Enos Calvin Freeland), Nelson T. Villers (son of Albert Peyton Villers and Sarah Ann Henry Villers), and Thomas Calvin Wince (son of Peter Wince and Sarah Catherine Freeland Wince). Adam and Bertha’s marker have been knocked off the base. The top of Nelson and Thomas’s markers were broken.

Anyone with information, should contact the Tyler County Sheriff’s Department at (304) 758-4229.

Freeland Cemetery is not the only cemetery in the county that has been vandalized in recent years.

Aside from obeying local and state laws regarding vandalism, the reason that it is wrong to vandalize a cemetery is that it mocks not only the people whose gravestones were disturbed, but the communities where they lived. Knocking over a gravestone robs the dead, who are unable to make restore the markers. The person buried may have led a kind and noble life, so it is not fair or right to sully the deceased’s last testament by vandalizing a gravestone.

As to the community, knocking over a stone shows contempt for everyone.

If this is some juvenile act of defiance against “the system”, maybe these vandals should expand their horizons more.

But really, in an age when there’s plenty of things for young people to do such as chasing cartoon computer images on a phone or watching one of 300 channels on television, why not find a better way to spend time outdoors instead of knocking over gravestones?

Maybe pick up a book or go to church.