Burials for the Most Vulnerable

I usually do not speak about local events in this blog, but this week, the governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner, suspended monies for social services including money to pay for burial for those receiving public assistance. The scope of the action is quite large, and will affect those who are most vulnerable and lack the resources for a loud voice in the government.  I wish to focus on those who will die, and their families who will face either leaving the bodies behind, or trying to find funding for a burial.  Some people will of course die without loved ones and who then will bury their bodies? When people are dying, and living far below the poverty line, does it matter how they are buried?  I think it matters quite a lot.  When we in Illinois are faced with an unjust law that forces us to contract with a for profit funeral director, it is no wonder to me that people are not able to bury their loved ones.  Some create source-funding sites to raise the money to do so.  Why should it cost so much to bury someone?  It really shouldn’t.  What about those who have no one?  What happens to their bodies when no one is there to speak for them?

It all comes back to us and our choices.  What kind of people do we want to be?  What kinds of responsibility do we want to have to each other?  When will we ever take on an industry that in many places will not allow a free market to bear out the changes that only demand can make happen? Do we want to live in isolation from our neighbors? Do we want to let the fear of death keep us from just laws? I don’t know, maybe we do.  Maybe we do not wish to think about those who have so much less than we do that they can’t bury their loved ones?  Maybe this makes us uncomfortable.  Maybe we don’t mind if someone has to leave their loved one in a morgue and walk away? Do we want to be a people where only the rich can afford to be buried without paying in installments or crowd funding?

 I recall a few years back that the Chicago morgues were overcrowded and backlogged.  I do not want us to go back to this.  What we do for those most vulnerable and those who can no longer do anything for us tells us or themselves who we want to be as a people. I hope we take a good long look at how the budget is set.  Maybe the burials cost too much.  I am sure they do, but that too is a simple issue to solve.  Open our market place so that there can be a free exchange of ideas and services offered to people.   Maybe there will be a more creative and gentler approach offered.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that our laws surrounding burial are unjust for everyone, and especially those who have few resources.  This can’t go on. Make a change, and call your state representatives and speak your mind.  Contact the Midwest Green Burial Society we can further assist you in the process.