by Justin Nobel
What happens when a bum dies? Most states bury them, but last month, Illinois announced it no longer has the money to do so. The state's Department of Human Services pays for about 10,000 burials a year, at a cost of $15 million.
Putting the poor to rest in a sanctioned spot is common practice across the United States. New York Cities' indigent are buried on an island by prisoners from a nearby jail who get paid 25-35 cents an hour for their labor; Cleveland's poor are laid to rest in a mown field surrounded by forest and many of New Orleans' poor end up in Holt Cemetery, where bodies are actually buried underground (uncommon in New Orleans, which sits below sea-level) and decorated with planter boxes and bed frames.
Graveyards of the poor and criminal are known as potter's fields and date back to Haceldama, a cemetery in the Valley of Hinnom, outside the Old City of Jerusalem, whose name means “field of blood."
According to the bible, when the traitorous Judas turned himself in to the chief priests he threw down 30 pieces of silver. The money was regarded as tainted and rather than be accepted directly by the church, it was used to purchase a plot of land for the burial of strangers. From the accounts of St. Peter, Judas was one of the first occupants: Read the rest of this entry »
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