Island of the Undesirables: AIDS, COVID-19, Confederate Prisoners, a Million More Stories Micky Z.

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Claire Yaffa Children With Aids Photograph Collection, PR 290

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

July 15, 2020

Imagine a tiny, off-limits, allegedly haunted island upon which prisoners are recruited to dig mass graves for adults and children alike. Some of those bodies, by the way, are first used as medical cadavers.

Hart Island is located at the western end of the Long Island Sound, off the coast of the northeastern Bronx. Despite being only one mile long and 1/3 mile wide, it’s home to more than one million souls. It could be the tenth most populous city in the U.S. -- ranked above teeming metropolises like San Francisco, Denver, D.C., Boston, and Detroit.

I say “could” because Hart Island, as a potter’s field for New York City, is actually the largest tax-funded cemetery in the world. And, until 2019, it was manned by grave-digging inmate labor shipped over from nearby Rikers Island.


Claire Yaffa Children With Aids Photograph Collection, PR 290

Generally speaking, a potter’s field is where any city buries the bodies (and body parts) of those not claimed by any family members or unable to afford a private funeral. This typically includes the homeless, indigent, and people who live alone and below the poverty line. Low-income victims of epidemics and pandemics are often buried in such a location -- a fact I will confess to ruminating over this past March and April in NYC.

(more)

https://worldnewstrust.com/island-of-the-undesirables-aids-covid-19-confederate-prisoners-and-a-million-more-stories-mickey-z