human services integration

human services integration

Running head: FUNERAL ACTIVISM







Funeral Activism:
When Freedom of Speech Infringes on Personal Mourning
When in mourning, the custom is to honor the person who has passed. Behavior to remember the deceased normally consists of crying, respectful words, and other statements in remembrance of the person. These behaviors are usually harbored in a church and are the culturally acceptable way to act at a funeral. Negative deviant behavior has been occurring recently especially at funerals of those who have died as soldiers.
Funeral activism has grown. This negative deviant behavior involves actions that normally take place at political rallies. Picket signs, hollering, challenging others for participating in the funeral, and much more abrasive behavior that is normally conducted at a solemn ceremony to remember the passing of a loved one are all components of funeral activism. While the activists are practicing their right to freedom of speech, their actions are considered disrespectful and unacceptable when compared to regular customary actions of a funeral.
Mourning is the culturally acceptable way to act at a funeral. Activism, where attendees display their dissatisfaction for the actions of the deceased by participating in a war they disapprove, is extremely different than how people normally act at a funeral. The deviant behavior of funeral activism challenges the normative order at a funeral. With activism at a funeral identified as unacceptable behavior, the deviant behavior is substantiated as improper. Those that partake in the deviant behavior are categorized as acting out of the norm so that mourning is reinforced to be the acceptable behavior at a funeral.
If enough begin taking part in the deviant behavior of funeral activism, funerals of soldiers may be held in secret and the war that they are dying in may become more and more socially unacceptable. The possible social change is to end the war. It is unlikely that the cultural...

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