NEWSLETTER Issue No. 2 ©1999/Darryl J. Roberts March 1998 Additional/Back Issues Dear website visitor, Welcome to the new issue of our newsletter. In this issue, we are indeed fortunate to have not one, but two articles written by Karen J. Leonard.  Karen is the research assistant for the landmark book -- The American Way of Death -- authored by the late Jessica Mitford. As always, I look forward to hearing from you. Darryl J. Roberts The Art of Restoring Consumer's Last Rights or. . . Embalmer, Pickle Yourself! by Karen J. Leonard The costliness of embalming continually climbs for the mortuary owner who must use expensive equipment to comply with OSHA's laws to protect workers from blood-borne pathogens and toxic waste.   And even though less costly and less dangerous methods exist for storing and preserving a body for viewing and shipping, the American funeral director continues to ignore logic and the public's safety.  Funeral directors continue to lie to the public about needing to pickle a body to view it. Government aids and abets them by continuing to force consumers to embalm a body for transportation on common carriers (We should be thankful that the government doesn't require embalming for all the perishable goods it ships across the world.  Imagine how fast the cost of beef from Texas would drop once it was filled with formaldehyde!) What could be behind such an illogical refusal to comply with reality?  Why does the funeral director so adamantly hold on to his syringes and trocars, his pumps and fluids? The answer can be found at the SCI-owned American Funeral Museum, an historic tribute that centers around the mysticism of the so-called "art" of embalming.  There you can view a video that compares The American Way of Death with historical ancient Egypt.  Laughed Jessica Mitford, "Now there's a culture whose funeral directors really got out of hand!" The use of embalming has removed the industry from the trade of casket makers and body transporters to the realm of "science."  On embalming rests their case to be included amongst the "professionals," resting somewhere -- they would like the public to believe -- between doctors and priests. Where would their standing be if their only tools of the trade were goods and services that could be provided by anyone?  What would all the Colleges of Mortuary "Science" teach besides how to market products?  What need for the ever-growing body of legislation across the nation to require more complicated licensing?  Indeed, what could cause a greater blow to their justification for such high costs if they simply offered corpsicles? Reflections on Working with Jessica by Karen J. Leonard Working with Decca (as Jessica Mitford was called by nearly everyone) on her revision of The American Way of Death was like taking a trip through the Looking Glass with the Cheshire Cat as my tour guide.  It was a grand and somewhat bizarre adventure. Her delight in the antics of the dismal trade of the funeral director was contagious and her only regret when she began the update of her book was the lack of good spokespeople, or fodder for her joust.  She was genuinely saddened to learn of the death of Krieger, the mastermind of the casket showroom layout.  Howard Raether, one-time director of the National Funeral Director's Associate, had been so deflated in stature by the time of her rewrite that he seemed buried, if not quite dead. The present day spokespeople for the industry were so mealy-mouthed, so cautious and passionless that Decca felt, at first, that the decades since The American Way of Death was published had taken the wind out of their sales, er...sails.  But the beautiful brochures and glossy advertising of the death industry made her realize that they had simply learned to become more subtle.  Their jargon had climbed from the emotionally-charged drivel of sanctimonious God's headwaiters to the heights of sleek Madison Avenue ad men. Without a doubt, the emergence of the multi-national conglomerates in the industry changed the scene from local mortuaries and cemeteries battling over bodies to a Wall Street commerce of corpses.   Reading the detailed analyses of stockbrokers who were bullish on death filled her with inspiration.  Decca was assured that her old nemesis, the men in black, would never fail to entertain her and her readers.  This, more than anything else, influenced Decca to start out once more on her journey to what she referred to as "cloud cuckoo land" where Death's real adventure is getting past His vendors.

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