The cost of currency for funerals

{A burial in the sky}

Losing a loved one is hard . Capitalism makes it harder . 

There are many things a person can do to make their death easier for their family . One of those things is to prepay for their final expenses so as to not leave behind a burden for their family  as to how to pay these costly expenses. 

This can be achieved by finding an insurance company.  Sometimes the person will have a beneficiary to handle this , but often the funeral home will handle this .  This is determined when the insurance is taken out . The person taking out the insurance will decide on how much to pay based on what they want . Cremation or burial , or if they want a funeral service . The insurance company isn’t actually paying for anything, they are just handling the funds that the person put into it . It is their own money . Sounds simple right ? But it’s far from simple under capitalism. 

After a loved one dies the grief can be overwhelming. You pick out a funeral home. Talk to them on the phone . You ask if they take the insurance and they say yes and to bring the paperwork in to the mortuary when you come in . The death happens and they come and get the body . You don’t get an appointment at the mortuary for a week later  . When you go to the appointment you show them the insurance and they tell you that they actually don’t take insurance. You can’t change your mind and find another mortuary because you would then owe them for the cost of the transportation, and the storage of the body that they have had for a week . You then find out they own most of the mortuaries in the area anyway . 

The funeral home tells you they will fill out the insurance paperwork for $300. The forms are simple and the funeral director tells you that if you pay it the insurance company will just reimburse you . Without much of a choice at this point you pay for it , fill out the paperwork and wait to get reimbursed. 

Weeks go by without a response. You call the insurance company, and they want more documentation, so you get it and send it in. Now months have gone by, and you call again. The insurance company first tells you that you didn’t send anything in. When you get upset, they tell you that you are too angry, and they threaten to hang up on you. They then go from we didn’t get any paperwork to the paperwork you sent in doesn’t work. After you mention getting a lawyer the paperwork now works, but the money that you paid out of your own pocket now belongs to your deceased parent and they will be sending the estate the check. You will now have to take the check to probate court. It is $150 to file and an extensive amount of paperwork. If probate court clears it, you have to then deal with the bank and hope they will cash it for you. All of this because a loved one didn’t want their death to be a burden on their family, and to get your own money back. My mother died on August 2nd 2022 and I’m still waiting for the check. 

Summation: After doing some research and finding out that funerals all over the world are costly. Cuba has one of the best situations and even it has many drawbacks. Caskets are in low supply and burial/cremation has to take place within 24 hours because there is not adequate refrigeration. Logically the best funeral accommodations go to officers of the revolution. Spain also has some of the best conditions around cost of funerals. Under their system they are starting to offer free funerals for those that contribute as organ donors. They have been able to get the countries rate of organ donors up to just under 35 percent with this technique. The moneychangers have literally created a world where many cannot afford to live and cannot afford to die. This is unfathomable and we at I.S.R find it completely unacceptable.

Where do we do from here? I.S.R is already using our radical imaginations to bring dignity to the masses. From an indigenous lens currency could not be accepted for a funeral because it is a sacred time. Once currency is involved with spirituality it is no longer sacred. As part of the restoration of Turtle Island we will bring back the sky burial. Our united native nations will join the Tibetan Buddhists as cultures that still have intact sky burial practices. Historically several cultures used sky burial including Celtics. Cremation and earth burial will also be options but will have more sustainable practices around it. Considerations will be made for the earth and this process will aid in restoring health and vitality to a damaged continent. Graduate from “activism” to nation building. Our minds are our primary weapons. Under indigenous rule and as one united Turtle Island there is nothing, we cannot find solutions to. We are those modern-day dreamers and visionaries. As the #RightfulStewards of this continent, we have the authority to do this. Red Power! Join I.S.R the fledgling pan indigenous government.

“There is no old way or new way. There’s just a way. A way to live with earth or not to live with earth. We choose the way of earth”.

John Trudell

Confront Colonialism-Restore Turtle Island

Written by Officer Sandy. Edited by the Invisible Warrior