I have written to Dr. Minyard, the corporation, and to Mayor Nagin. The letter is below. If you are similarly appalled by what has become another post-Katrina, socio-economic perversion, I encourage you to also write these officials:
Dr. Frank Minyard
2612 Martin Luther Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70113
Mayor C. Ray Nagin
New Orleans City Hall
1300 Perdido St.
New Orleans, LA 70112
you may insert my letter into the contact form at: www.cityofno.com
New Orleans Katrina Memorial Corporation
PO Box 50610
New Orleans, LA 70150
Dr. Frank Minyard:
I am writing in response to the CNN article that was electronically published on
As President of the Institute on Religious Deathcare and Spiritual Healing, Inc., I represent our members and affiliated congregations. I believe your decision to withhold the identified and unidentified victims from interment is a great disrespect to those lives that were tragically lost. I also believe it is similarly unfair to those families that continue to mourn their loved ones and to those who can only wonder if their family member lies in a warehouse, swaddled in a plastic covered coffin. Speaking from the perspective of a hospice chaplain, I assure you that the current treatment of those 100 individuals will further complicate their family’s grieving.
In a city that is continuously striving to overcome many socio-economic injustices, I believe that refusing to inter those whose families cannot afford to bury them is an abysmal malpractice. Furthermore, your interview with CNN gives the impression that you are refusing to release or find sufficient disposal of the decedents in order to create a memorial with the 100 bodies. In your interview you stated: “You can’t spread these victims all over. This is a memorial to a hurricane.” I highly support your pursuit of a memorial; however, withholding the dead from their overdue burial for the sake of creating a memorial is simply unethical. Though I believe a memorial is needed to remember the tragedy and many lives lost, it is not your moral decision or right to prevent the dead from their final interment, despite your legal privileges. The 100 decedents are not merely relics of Katrina, subject to agendas or a community’s intentions simply because of their tragic ending. Continuing to hold these persons will prevent any future glorification a memorial will offer since the mortuary practices that preceded its erection were so terribly grim.
It would be noble and merciful of you to spend a small portion of the $250K you have raised thus far in order to immediately inter the dead. Arranging a simple, inter-faith memorial service to remember the dead can be easily accomplished, permitting families to come together and fulfill their duty to their loved ones, furthering their healing process.
Joseph M. Primo, MDiv
President
