Students are shown at Carl Wunsche Sr. High School, 900 Wunsche Loop, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Spring.
Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer
A lawmaker pushing to ban non-human behavior in schools says he based his bill on a conversation with a school administrator, who has since denied so-called furries are a problem in her district.
During an at-times tense hearing Tuesday night, Republican state Rep. Stan Gerdes said he filed the bill after hearing “reports of the presence of a furry” in a Smithville school. He said he called the district superintendent in November, who told him “this is happening in districts across the state” and schools don’t have the ability to stop it.
“We just want to help them have the tools to get some of the distractions out of the classroom so we can get back to teaching time,” Gerdes told the House Public Education Committee.
But the Smithville school district issued a public statement last month disputing Gerdes’ claims. It said Superintendent Cheryl Burns told Gerdes there were no litter boxes on campus for use by students dressed as cats, but as a courtesy to the lawmaker, she “made the extra effort to walk the campus to confirm.”
“At this time, the District has no concerns related to students behaving as anything but typical children,” the statement said.
Still, Gerdes argued the legislation was needed to curb the “extremely concerning” trend while providing scant evidence furries are a problem, or even present, in Texas schools.
Both Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows have backed the “Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (F.U.R.R.I.E.S) Act,” which would prohibit any “non-human behavior” by a student, including wearing animal ears or barking, meowing or hissing.
The bill includes exceptions for sports mascots or kids in school plays and would only apply to grades 6-12. Still, it includes a clause that would amend the family code to deem schools “allowing or encouraging” a child to “develop a dependence on or a belief that non-human behaviors are societally acceptable” as child abuse.
The furries trend has existed for years, at least among adults. Many like taking on animal personas, dressing up in costumes and attending gatherings. The annual Anthrocon convention in Pittsburgh draws thousands.
Rumors about classrooms adapting to child furries appeared to start online in 2022. School districts in Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska later debunked claims they were providing litter boxes in bathrooms, and the fact-checking team at PolitiFact could not find any credible news reports that supported the claim.
Under questioning from a Democrat on the panel, who cast the bill as part of a “smear campaign” against public schools, Gerdes could not point to a single example of a school providing litter boxes to students.
Gerdes, a two-term legislator and past aide to former Gov. Rick Perry, said his office has received “some reports of them.”
“Did I go to these school districts and visit and see it with my own eyes? No,” Gerdes said.
When Gerdes introduced the legislation last month, he said he fully expected members of the subculture he was targeting to show up at the Capitol “in full furry vengeance” when the bill was heard.
“Just to be clear — they won’t be getting any litter boxes in the Texas Capitol,” the Smithville Republican said in a press release announcing the bill.
But there were no so-called furries or litter boxes at the late-night hearing Tuesday. Instead, the four people who showed up to testify against the measure included a public school teacher and a Texan who worried the measure could affect students with disabilities.
State Rep. James Talarico, a Round Rock Democrat who grilled Gerdes on the legislation, called the bill a “joke,” but said it would have serious consequences for educators. Teachers and schools could face fines of $10,000 to $25,000 for allowing behavior prohibited by the bill.
Talarico questioned whether a student licking their fingers after eating Cheetos would be prohibited by language in the bill, which defines “non-human behavior” as “licking oneself or others for the purpose of grooming or maintenance.” He asked whether students reading “Animal Farm” would be flouting the law if they made sounds like the characters in the book.
Gerdes said neither would meet the intent of the bill, and said he would be open to working with Talarico on the language to make him more comfortable with the legislation.
“I’m not comfortable with any bill that’s going after a non-existent issue,” Talarico responded. He cast the bill as part of an effort by Republicans to undermine public schools.
“Governor Abbott has used this litter box rumor to paint our schools in the worst possible light,” Talarico said. “That’s because if you want to defund neighborhood schools across the state, you have to get Texans to turn against their public schools. So you call librarians groomers, you accuse teachers of indoctrination, and now you say that schools are providing litter boxes to students. That’s how all of this is tied together.”
Gerdes denied the accusation. Later in the hearing, state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, defended Gerdes as a supporter of public schools and cast Talarico’s opposition to the legislation as part of an “obsession” with the governor.
“His hatred for Gov. Abbott and for private school vouchers or educational savings accounts has just gone too far,” Leach said. “You’re highly respected,” he told Gerdes, “and this bill doesn’t change that.”
The committee left the measure, House Bill 54, pending.
Detailed Army plans for a potential military parade on President Donald Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated April 29 and 30 and have not been publicly released. They represent the Army’s most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element — a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed.
The Army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14.
While the slides do not include any price estimates, it would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size. Costs would include the movement of military vehicles, equipment, aircraft and troops from across the country to Washington and the need to feed and house thousands of service members.
High costs halted Trump’s push for a parade in his first term, and the tanks and other heavy vehicles that are part of the Army’s latest plans have raised concerns from city officials about damage to roads.
Asked about plans for a parade, Army spokesman Steve Warren said Thursday that no final decisions have been made.
Col. Dave Butler, another Army spokesman, added that the Army is excited about the plans for its anniversary.
“We want to make it into an event that the entire nation can celebrate with us,” said Butler. “We want Americans to know their Army and their soldiers. A parade might become part of that, and we think that will be an excellent addition to what we already have planned.”
Others familiar with the documents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been finalized, said they represent the Army’s plans as it prepares for any White House approval of the parade. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There has been no formal approval yet. Changes to the plans have been made in recent weeks and more are likely.
In a Truth Social post Thursday night that did not mention the June 14 plans, Trump wrote, “We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” He vowed to rename May 8, now known as Victory in Europe Day, as “Victory Day for World War II,” and to change November 11, Veterans Day, to “Victory Day for World War I.”
What would go into the potential Army parade
Much of the equipment would have to be brought in by train or flown in.
Some equipment and troops were already going to be included in the Army’s birthday celebration, which has been in the works for more than a year. The festival was set to involve an array of activities and displays on the National Mall, including a fitness competition, climbing wall, armored vehicles, Humvees, helicopters and other equipment.
A parade, however, would increase the equipment and troops involved. According to the plans, as many as 6,300 of the service members would be marching in the parade, while the remainder would be responsible for other tasks and support.
The Army’s early festival plans did not include a parade, but officials confirmed last month that the Army had started discussions about adding one.
The plans say the parade would showcase the Army’s 250 years of service and foresee bringing in soldiers from at least 11 corps and divisions nationwide. Those could include a Stryker battalion with two companies of Stryker vehicles, a tank battalion and two companies of tanks, an infantry battalion with Bradley vehicles, Paladin artillery vehicles, Howitzers and infantry vehicles.
There would be seven Army bands and a parachute jump by the Golden Knights. And documents suggest that civilian participants would include historical vehicles and aircraft and two bands, along with people from veterans groups, military colleges and reenactor organizations.
According to the plan, the parade would be classified as a national special security event, and that request has been submitted by the National Park Service and is under review.
And it is expected that the evening parade would be followed by a concert and fireworks.
One of the documents raises concerns about some limitations, which include where troops would be housed and “significant concerns regarding security requirements” as equipment flows into the city. It says the biggest unknown so far is which units would be participating.
Trump has long wanted a big military parade
In his first term, Trump proposed having a parade after seeing one in France on Bastille Day in 2017. Trump said that after watching the two-hour procession along the famed Champs-Elysees that he wanted an even grander one on Pennsylvania Avenue.
That plan was ultimately dumped due to the huge costs — with one estimate of a $92 million price tag — and other logistical issues. Among those were objections from city officials who said including tanks and other heavy armored vehicles would tear up the roads.
Trump said in a social media post in 2018 that he was canceling the event over the costs and accused local politicians of price gouging.
This year, as plans progressed for the Army to host its birthday festival in Washington, talk about a parade began anew.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged in April that the administration reached out to the city about holding a parade on June 14 that would stretch from Arlington, Virginia, where the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery are located, across the Potomac River and into Washington.
Bowser at the time said she didn’t know if the event was being “characterized as a military parade” but added that tanks rolling through the city’s streets “would not be good.”
“If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads,” she said.
In 2018, the Pentagon appeared to agree. A memo from the defense secretary’s staff said plans for the parade — at that time — would include only wheeled vehicles and no tanks to minimize damage to local infrastructure.
Baldor has covered the Pentagon and national security issues for The Associated Press since 2005. She has reported from all over the world including warzones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (Screenshot/YouTube)
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to learn about President Trump’s debunked claims that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. The lesson will not be part of a course on conspiracy theories, but an official component of the new social studies curriculum created by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R).
The new curriculum includes a section that requires students to “analyze contemporary turning points of 21st-century American society.” That requirement includes the following:
Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of “bellwether county” trends.
In March, Walters said the purpose of this section was to teach “students to think for themselves” and “not be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda.” According to Walters, there are “legitimate concerns” about the integrity of the 2020 election that were “raised by millions of Americans in 2020.”
Walters is wrong. There are no “discrepancies” in the 2020 election results that validate the claims of Trump and his allies that the results were fraudulent. The new curriculum is simply an amalgamation of unsupported claims.
There was no “sudden halting” of ballot counting in key states. The counting took an extended period in some states because election officials were legally prohibited from counting early ballots in advance. Mail-in balloting is safe and secure. Large increases in vote totals (“batch dumps”) happen in every election, impact both parties, and are not a sign of fraud. Record turnout in 2020 was not “unforeseen” — it was due to increased engagement related to the pandemic and other factors. And traditional “bellwether” counties are now more conservative than the nation as a whole.
Oklahoma’s legislature had an opportunity to block the new curriculum. The chairman of the Oklahoma Senate Education Committee, Adam Pugh (R), filed a resolution that would have sent the curriculum back to the Oklahoma State Board of Education for further review. But ultimately, the resolution did not receive a vote.
Moms for Liberty, a far-right activist organization, sent a letter to Republican members of the legislature, praising the new curriculum as “truth-filled, anti-woke, and unapologetically conservative.” They also delivered a warning: “In the last few election cycles, grassroots conservative organizations have flipped seats across Oklahoma by holding weak Republicans accountable. If you choose to side with the liberal media and make backroom deals with Democrats to block conservative reform, you will be next.”
How Walters jammed his new standards through the State Board of Education
Walters’ new social studies standards were approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Education in February. But many members have since said that Walters used deceptive tactics in order to pass new last-minute changes.
Walters did not send the new standards with his additions to the members of the board until 4 p.m. the day before the board’s 9:30 a.m. meeting. This did not give members enough time to read the new standards, which are around 400 pages long. Some of the members said later that they did not even realize that the new standards were different from the earlier version that they had previously reviewed.
The email sent the day before the meeting “subtly indicate[d]” that updates had been made, but did “not provide any specifics,” 2 News Oklahoma reported. In the meeting, Walters did not mention the specific changes. In an April 24 meeting, one of the board members, Chris VanDenhende, asked Walters to provide documents that noted the changes made, but Walters called the request “irrelevant.”
At the February meeting, Ryan Deatherage, a board member, asked to delay the vote so they had time to read the full standards, but Walters “pressure[d] the board to vote that day, indicating a legislative time crunch,” according to 2 News, which attended the meeting. In reality, they had until April to approve the standards. After the February meeting, multiple members of the board stated that they wanted another chance to review the standards, calling Walters’ tactics a “breach of trust,” the Oklahoman reported.
Walters claimed that the last-minute additions to the standards were based on public input. But there is no evidence of this. During a press conference, “a reporter who reviewed an open records request said there were no public comments that suggested adding a standard about election discrepancies,” KGOU reported. Walters responded by arguing that there were “focus groups” and “a lot of discussions that were going on.” But Walters also acknowledged that he was the one who decided to change the content. “Ultimately, it was up to me to make the final decisions of what are we going to put in,” he stated.
Walters also included right-wing activists on the committee that reviewed the social studies standards. The committee would normally involve educators and other experts, but Walters’ committee included Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation; Dennis Prager, the co-founder of PragerU; and right-wing media personalities Steve Deace and David Barton. Only three out of the 10 people on the committee have lived in Oklahoma, according to the Oklahoma Voice.
The Oklahoma Council for Social Studies (OCSS) opposes Walters’ new standards: “OCSS cannot fully support the standards in their current form. Many of the late additions include historically inaccurate content and do not align with the inclusive, evidence-based approach that is essential to high-quality social studies instruction.” The statement also argued that “the manner in which these changes were introduced raises serious concerns, casting doubt on the transparency and integrity of the standards development process.”
More Bible, less Biden
Among the curriculum changes that will soon go into effect is the removal of part of a unit in which students will learn about former President Joe Biden’s administration. The original lesson plan taught students about the “challenges and accomplishments” of Biden’s term, but the new version focuses on challenges and leaves out accomplishments.
The original version said that students should be able to describe economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and bipartisan infrastructure legislation. The new version only asks students to describe “the United States-Mexico border crisis” and “America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Gaza-Israel conflict.”
While Biden’s accomplishments are de-emphasized in the new curriculum, the amount of time Oklahoma students spend learning about Christianity and the Bible will be increased. In December, Walters proudly announced that his new curriculum will increase the number of mentions of the Bible from two to nearly 50 for students starting in first grade. The Bible lessons primarily focus on the influence of Christian values on the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.
Students as young as six years old will learn the stories of the Ten Commandments and David and Goliath. By the end of middle school, students will have gone through several lessons on how the Bible’s principles served as inspiration for the American independence movement. In high school, they will be able to take an entire course about early Christians and the history of Christianity.
Despite the new emphasis on the relationship between the Bible and America’s founding, the curriculum does not reference the separation of church and state. Walters and many of the Christian nationalist figures who helped him craft the curriculum have said that the separation of church and state is unconstitutional or a myth.
After seeing this cartoon, my friend John Kovalic wrote, “Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter ‘F’ and the number 47.”
Late last night (Thursday), Donald Trump issued another illegal executive order, with this one ordering the board of directors for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS” because Trump claims they’re woke and liberally biased.
The problem with liberal bias is that facts have a liberal bias. If everything you say is a lie and everything you do is corrupt, illegal, sick, depraved, inhumane, racist, and fucked up, then factual reporting is not your friend.
Trump can’t do anything official against the free press, but he can put his weight on them, which seems to be working on The Washington Post and CBS News, but he can meddle with government programs…to an extent.
The order says, “Neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens. The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”
The good news is, the government will continue to fund Trump’s golf games.
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger called it a “blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night.” The middle of the night is when authoritarian governments tend to do their best work, like sending stormtroopers to break down your door, drag every member of your family out, and then put them in a train cattle car.
CPB issued a statement saying, “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”
I bet Trump’s thinking that’s the kind of biased reporting that is costing PBS and NPR their funding. He’s probably also thinking, “Respect my authority!”
The CPB noted that the statute Congress passed to create it “expressly forbade any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.”
Congress said that such funds “may be used at the discretion of the recipient” for producing or acquiring programs to put on the air.
Trump has already asked Congress to rescind funds already approved for public broadcasting. Fascists always murder a free press.
CPB is already suing the regime over Trump’s executive order seeking to fire three of its five board members.
Trump recently attacked PBS and NPR on his platform ShitSocial, saying, “REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”
Does Big Bird look like a radical left monster?
Conservatives have been howling for years that NPR and PBS are liberally biased while the progressive group Fair (Fairness in Accuracy in Reporting) once issued a report blasting PBS and NPR for being too conservative.
That’s the thing with the media. It’s never conservative enough for conservatives or liberal enough for liberals.
We got that complaint all the time when I was at The Free Lance-Star. Our page at that time was conservative, but we ran liberal columns and my pinko and unpatriotic cartoons. My editors sought balance, but there was still more conservative content than liberal, yet the conservatives still howled.
Each week, Politico publishes what they call the “Cartoon Carousel,” which is a collection of cartoons from the past week (USA Today and The Washington Post both used to do this, but they stopped). It too seeks balance and publishes an equal number of conservative and liberal cartoons, which means half the cartoons suck. I support diversity in news content, but I hate when it’s chosen over quality.
Now, one of those who complain irrationally about balance is in the White House, and he’ll abuse his power to do things the Constitution doesn’t give him the power to do.
Trump’s first 100 days have been a total disaster. Defunding public broadcasting is the kind of messed up crap we can expect for the next 100 days and every day after that until we get this orange ogre out of the White House.
Creative note: My brain was slow-moving today, and I have about ten subjects written down to choose from. Sometimes it’s harder to choose your subject than it is to write the cartoon. When you have a long list of subjects, it’s nice when you can combine two of them, which I did today. Oscar came to me around noon. I need to move on to those other subjects, but while writing this blog, I got a great idea featuring Bert and Ernie.
Music note: Have you ever noticed that the Sesame Street theme is the same song as Sunshine Day by The Brady Bunch?
Drawn in 30 seconds: From TikTok, and with music. (snip-MORE)
May 3, 1808 Civilians were executed by Napoleonic forces putting down a rebellion by the citizens of Madrid, Spain on Principe Pio Hill. The event was memorialized in the painting by Francisco de Goya, “The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid.” Aspects of the painting inspired the design of the peace symbol by Gerald Holtom in 1958.
May 3, 1886 At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a rally was being held because of a strike at the McCormick Harvester plant, just two days after an enormous May Day turnout. Though the mass meeting was peaceful, a force of 176 police officers arrived, demanding that the meeting disperse. Someone, unknown to this day, then threw a bomb at the police. In their confusion, the police began firing their weapons in the dark, killing at least three in the crowd and wounding many more. Seven police died (only one by the bomb), the rest probably by police fire. Read more
May 3, 1963 In Birmingham, Alabama, Public Safety Commissioner and recently failed mayoral candidate Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor used fire hoses and police dogs on children near the 16th Street Baptist Church to keep them from marching out of the “Negro section” of town. With no room left to jail them (after arresting nearly 1000 the day before), Connor brought firefighters out and ordered them to turn hoses on the children. Most ran away, but one group refused to budge. The firefighters turned more hoses on them, powerful enough to break bones. The force of the water rolled the protesters down the street. In addition, Connor had mobilized K-9 (police dog) forces who attacked protesters trying to re-enter the church. Pictures of the confrontation between the children and the police were televised across the nation. Read more about the Birmingham Campaign
May 3, 1968 More than 100 black students took over a building at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. They were demanding attention to their advocacy for inclusion of African-American history, literature and art in the curriculum. Their efforts led to the establishment of an African-American studies department which now offers a doctoral program. How it happened
May 3, 1971 The Nixon administration ordered the arrest of nearly 13,000 anti-war protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe who had begun four days of demonstrations in Washington, D.C. on the first. They aimed to shut down the nation’s capital by disrupting morning rush-hour traffic and other forms of nonviolent direct action, skirmishing with metropolitan police and Federal troops throughout large areas of the capital. The slogan of the Mayday tribe: “If the government won’t stop the [Vietnam] war, we’ll stop the government.“ Read more
May 3, 1971 The first broadcast of National Public Radio’s evening news and public affairs program, “All Things Considered,” was aired on about 90 public radio affiliates around the country. The main story was the disruptive anti-Vietnam protests in Washington.It is now the fourth most listened-to radio program in the U.S. More about that first program
May 3, 1980 Sixty thousand marched on the Pentagon to urge the end of U.S. military involvement in El Salvador.
Clockwise from top left: Katherine Fite, Belle Mayer Zeck, Harriet Zetterberg, and Cecelia Goetz
When Katherine Fite arrived in London in the summer of 1945, her role in the post-World War II justice process was so novel that the New York Times took notice. “Woman joins staff of war crimes group,” the paper proclaimed. Fite told the Times that “she would not know the scope of her assignment until she had arrived overseas, but that she had been conversant with most phases of the work of the State Department on war crimes.” As the quest for postwar justice continued, Fite became one of just a few women lawyers participating in what became known as the Nuremberg Trials.
On May 2, 1945 — just six days before Victory in Europe, or V-E Day — Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson agreed to serve as chief prosecutor. That summer, as Europe emerged from the war, Jackson worked with his team and the Allies to prepare for the first ever international war crimes trials. Fite joined both the negotiations and legal research that led to the August 8 signing of the London Charter, creating the International Military Tribunal.
Katherine Fite (right) with Justice Jackson, ca. 1945 (National Archives)
Fite was the only woman lawyer present in the preparation phase. In September 1945, a month before the trials began, Fite toured Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich. She wrote home about the experience: “The gardens might well look fertile — human ashes were readily available for fertilizer.” A Polish-Jewish man who had survived Dachau showed her the gas chambers, disguised as shower rooms.
After the first trial, which lasted until October 1946, the United States launched 12 more trials that continued through 1949. Men dominated the courtroom — both as lawyers and as defendants — so women’s contributions were often overlooked. From the beginning, however, the American legal team relied on women’s work in key ways, from Fite’s work in the planning through the execution of the final trials, to Belle Zeck’s foundational work investigating German manufacturer I.G. Farben, to Cecelia Goetz’s key role prosecuting Krupp Industries.
Fite was not the only woman present at the Nuremberg Trials, but she was the highest-level female attorney in the early phases. Harriet Zetterberg was another early participant, the only woman lawyer assigned to the main prosecution team for the first Nuremberg trial, beginning in mid-August and lasting until June of 1946. Zetterberg arrived in Nuremberg in mid-September and prepared trial briefs, including one on slave labor and how it was used as a method to kill. Zetterberg felt the weight of the work, calling the six interrogations she witnessed “extremely interesting — one gets a sense of listening to history in the making.” (snip-MORE. This is really good.)
I’ve even made plans, presuming some of this becomes legal in the next 10 years where I live. I have high hopes for sky burials and terramation, at least those are my 2 favorites.) I have links to more info, but this is good for some who maybe haven’t thought of this aspect of the circle of life.
Think Outside the Coffin: Green Burials Gain Popularity
Green burials have been gaining favor for nearly 30 years, offering an eco-friendly way to say goodbye.
As Ben Franklin once said, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” While the subject of taxes may be unpleasant, conversations about death don’t have to be.
“Most families are close enough to know what their loved ones want, [but] a lot of people don’t learn about death care until a loved one dies,” says B. Milton, a retired death care industry professional in Indiana. End-of-life discussions can be uncomfortable to broach — a lot of people don’t pre-plan, according to Milton — but having direction for your post-life care allows for peace of mind, both emotionally and financially.
As most people know, conventional burials — those that include options like a viewing, a funeral service, and burial in a casket — can be very expensive. The national median cost of a funeral with a burial in 2023 was $8,300, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. Caskets alone can cost thousands of dollars. Of course, the sentiment is wonderful; there is a true gift in being able to choose a beautiful vessel as a loved one’s final resting place. A growing number of people, however, prefer to keep funeral costs lower and more eco-friendly with green burial options, including burial shrouds, terramation, and aquamation.
Burial Shrouds
“Green burials are in their infancy,” says Russ Burns, director of All Saints Cemetery and The Preserve, a natural burial site in Michigan. “In 20 to 30 years, they’ll be up there with traditional burials,” noting that customers interested in green burial are well-informed and concerned less about themselves post-mortem and more about how the area where they will be interred will remain green.
A cenotaph wall at The Preserve. The wall is a collection of rocks engraved with names of those buried on the property. It offers a physical place for family and friends to visit their loved ones as graves are inaccessible after the burial service. (Image courtesy of Mt. Elliott Cemeteries)
The use of a burial shroud is simple: The deceased is placed in a shroud made of a biodegradable material like canvas and committed to the earth about three feet underground. The shallower depth allows for more oxygen flow than the standard six-foot depth for coffins, which helps the body decompose and return to the soil. The process takes about a year and costs, at the lower end, around $1,800.
Burns cautions customers to do their research and make sure they work with an organization that is fully funded and has “more than good intentions.” Following burial, the land continues to require maintenance you would expect, like mowing and landscaping, but may also need an environmental impact study or a controlled burn to get rid of invasive plant species.
Terramation
Terramation, to put it simply, is human composting. If you’ve ever joked about having a green thumb, now you can have green everything and quite literally be turned into soil.
The first stage of terramation takes about a month. The deceased is placed in a vessel and covered in organic materials like straw, alfalfa, and wood chips. Families who attend the preparation of the body also known as a laying-in ceremony — sometimes bring garden clippings and assist in the process. The vessel is then closed and stored while microbes break the body down to roughly one cubic yard (or several hundred pounds) of soil. The material is examined for any remaining organic matter like bone or non-organic matter like surgical implants and then left to cure. Before being released to the family, the soil must pass safe compost regulations, including tests for the presence of arsenic or lead.
The process of composting people has only been around for about 10 years and is currently legal in 12 states, including Minnesota, Arizona, California, Colorado, New York, and Washington state. Cost can range from $5,000 to $7,000. In the video below, mortician and green death advocate Caitlin Doughty chats with Katrina Spade, the founder and CEO of Recompose, a green funeral home near Seattle that specializes in terramation.
Scottie's Playtime 