One of the more salacious news images going around is of inmates in PPE digging trench mass graves on #HartIsland in New York Harbor.

Historical fact- this is an ongoing inmate work assignment in the New York DOC. It isn't #COVIDー19 specific. 1/

Since 1980 when they started keeping good records, almost 70,000 of New York's indigent dead have been laid to rest in mass graves on Hart Island. It has served as the Pauper's Field for the biggest metropolitan area in the world for over a century. 2/

When Americans stopped handling our dead ourselves and turned it over to an industry, funerals and "proper burials" became a privilege of those who could afford it. 3/

Direct cremation, which is about the least expensive option you can do these days to deal with a loved ones remains (no funeral, just the cremation) will still run you around $600.00 for an adult. A full, traditional burial funeral, and you are probably talking $10,000+. 4/

So some of the bodies going in the ground at Hart Island maybe be COVID-19 victims. The ones who had no family to claim them or to pay the bill. They're also the rest of the indigent dead. Heart attacks. Homicides. The elderly. Drug overdoses. The homeless. The lost. 5/

You can read their stories here. https://www.hartisland.net/  6/

We need to make death care accessible in America the same way we need to make medical care accessible. And that starts with being willing to talk about it. 7/

For a place to start learning about death care in America and confronting your own mortality, visit The Order of the Good Death: http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/  8/

And if the idea of something like Hart Island shocks you, ask yourself, what happens to the I digest dead in my community?

I know the answer for where I live
Do you? 9/9