AIRHOGS TO GIVE AWAY FREE FUNERAL

Grand Prairie, TX (06.02.08) – The Grand Prairie AirHogs Professional Baseball team will be offering one lucky (or unlucky!) fan a free funeral as part of a promotion on Tuesday, June 3. All expenses will be covered by the Chapel of Roses Funeral Home and Oak Grove Memorial Gardens, both located in Irving, TX....

Some of the in-game-festivities will include: pallbearer races, mummy wrapping, eulogy deliveries, and much more! Fans are encouraged to wear black to the game.
(Click here for story)

When I read this story, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to cry. When I take groups to Silver Lake Cemetery to help clean, I always stress to them the importance of what they're doing and tell them that a certain level of seriousness is required. And I always conclude by saying, "you're at a cemetery, and not playing ball."

The promotion of a funeral home at a baseball game is an example of the lack of fences in society today. Koheles teaches us "Lakol Zeman VaEis - for everything, there is a time and a season." There is a time for baseball, and times for funerals. Merging them together, even for fake funerals, is a mockery of the practice. You wouldn't want to see a hot dog vendor at a cemetery.

There is a time and a place for fun and promotions. I think though we need to make sure that what is promoted is consistent with the event. Funerals and baseball? Not a winning combination.