how do you help the dead?
do the dead need our help?
more to the point, do the dead need our loose change?
Last night my friend and I went out on a beer run to the local market, and as we’re standing in line, I notice this container on the counter. It was a plastic tub that originally held a nationally known brand of margarine, but now the top had a hole cut in the center and there was a hand-written note on lined paper taped to the side. I will make no claims to be able to reproduce the message word for word, but the main thrust was quite simple, and the note read something like this . . .
‘Please help my friend #$@$^#&, she just died of a stroke at age 26. We all miss her, whatever you can do to help her out will be greatly appreciated.’
What the?!? I mean seriously people, while the passing of this person is almost certainly tragic, how on earth is pocket change going to help a dead girl? The dead don’t need our pocket change, they really don’t. I’m still fairly bewildered by the whole thing, at best this money is being raised to defray the cost of funeral expenses or help out the family members who are going through a rough patch due to this young woman’s passing; but the note made no mention of any of that . . . the entreaty was not to help the living, but the dead. At the worst this is someone attempting to profit by tugging with a rough and uncultivated hand at the heart-strings of the public.
There was a good chunk of change in that container, and if their actually is a dead girl tied into this whole situation, I can’t shake the feeling that she really doesn’t care.