Respect for the Dead

Today, the fiftieth anniversary of the "Munich air disaster" is being marked in the UK. What is this said air disaster, you ask? Apparently, a plane filled with Manchester United footballers crashed while trying to take off from an airfield in Munich in 1958 after refueling. Eight members of the team were killed.



So, before today's "Manchester derby" - - the match pitting the wiliness of Wayne Rooney (see above) and Cristiano Ronaldo's Man U against the sheer, unbridled charisma of coach Sven Goren Ericsson's Manchester City - - a minute of silence will be observed to mark this incident. Fair enough.

What was interesting to Old Ken, however, was a debate about this moment of silence here in London town. The question motivating it was: should anyone who breaks this moment of silence be banned from attending future soccer games for life? Should violation of the silence marking the memory of the dead be grounds for refusal from football in perpetuity?

All of this struck your truly as a little harsh and sanctimonious, especially when you look around at the news in the UK and see exactly what kind of treatment the dead have been receiving of late. Let's consider some examples:

First up is the case of Sally Ann Bowman, an aspiring model from Croydon who was, to quote the BBC, "stabbed seven times, sexually assaulted and bitten near her home in Croydon, south London, in September 2005." Her naked body was then discovered behind a dumpster. As if that was not ignominious enough, the man accused of her rape and murder, "chef Mark Dixie, 37, of no fixed address," defended himself against the murder rap with the following claim: "Mr Dixie denies murdering Miss Bowman, but says he had sex with her corpse after finding the body."

Next, consider the case of Mr. Denis Pring of greater Bristol, whose sad case was reported by the BBC in the following terms: "The body of a man believed to have been dead for more than five years has been found in a Bristol flat where a tenant continued to live." When neighbors reported "a foul smell," authorities discovered the corpse of the deceased "on a sofa in the lounge." This reminds Old Ken of a famous incident in a small, rural town in ye Olde Countree where a certain residence had to be razed after it was discovered that, rather than having their failed toilet fixed, the inhabitants had simply begun to answer nature's call in a collection of plastic buckets, which they kept in the house for years. But, at least in that case no one died.

Slightly different but, at least to Old Ken, no less a violation of the dead is the defense mounted in past weeks by one Steve Wright of Ipswich. Wright is accused of the murder of five prostitutes whose naked bodies were discovered in the woods around Ipswich in a two week period in late 2005. But, did Wright know these women? Had he, in fact, seen any of them on the days of their disappearance? So the BBC tells us:

"Steve Wright told Ipswich Crown Court he may have had sex with four of the women on the nights they vanished and possibly picked up the fifth woman." Strangely, Wright was unable to explain how the blood of one murdered prostitute was found on his jacket, although he did suggest that the blood of another dead prostitute might have gotten onto the same jacket because "she had 'bit her tongue' while laying down on a sofa in his home"!

Can anything be concluded from so many anecdotes about something larger like a British attitude toward the dead? Probably not. But, in light of these cases where corpses are treated as if they are still alive - - sexually approached, kept on sofas, and lied to - - it is hard not to hear the strangely harsh sanction of breaking their commemorative silence as a symptom and not just a mark of respect.