Today in things that make my brains slowly leak out my ears, I present: The citizens of Long Beach.
This is Jonathan Polk.
Jonathan is a business man attempting to open a funeral home and crematorium in Long Beach. Unfortunately for Jonathan, even though he did all the work to obtain the correct licenses to do so, the Long Beach City Council has placed a BAN on any new funeral or cremation establishments because….wait for it… citizens don’t like ’em.
Of COURSE they don’t like them. We live in the most elaborate culture of death denial that has ever existed in the history of the human species. Exposure to death used to be a constant reality. People died in their homes, processions to the cemetery wound their way through public streets. During times of disease, famine, or plague, corpses would literally line the street. All of these are still the reality in many other countries around the world.
Yes, we have pulled death out of polite society. But that doesn’t mean we’ve evolved. I would argue quite the opposite, in fact.
Mr. Polk believes that it is the fear of death that has turned people against his business. Mr. Polk is 100% correct.
Here’s this guy, in front of the Long Beach City Council. “I have to live next to burning human flesh,” said resident William Snipes. “I have no choice.”
“Burning human flesh?!?” you say? I’m sure William Snipes has a beautiful Buddha soul and is a victim of the prejudices of a death denying culture and whatnot, but how exactly did you think cremations happened, sir? And for thousands of years? Do you realize that all around you people are dying and being disposed of?
Then there’s another resident who is worried about “property taxes.” To be fair, at least she is being honest as opposed to acting like a functional highly regulated crematory is something from a torture porn film… the FLESH, the FLESH IS BURNING.
Am I just a death acceptance militant who is angry for no reason? Does William Snipes have the right to say, “Not in my backyard, mortality!” What do you think?