Press
"With a third Palo Alto student apparently committing suicide on the Caltrain tracks in just four months, railroad officials, educators and mental health professionals described the deaths Monday as an extremely rare "cluster." Concerned that other troubled teens would continue to be drawn to the site, transit officials said they were enforcing their policy on removing memorials, worried that the public grieving could inadvertently glorify the deaths and inspire more attempts. In contrast to the flowers and notes that crowded East Meadow Drive after the previous deaths, the only visible sign Monday of the latest tragedy was a police officer on patrol."
Poem
Cluster
fuck.
Sick inside.
Outside: Stanford, white successful people and houses that sell for (cheap at) 1.5 million dollars. No one says hello in my neighborhood, but they eat organic food and drive hybrid cars--hallelujah.
Translation of the Transit Official Memo
"Please don't grieve, beings who value life, because other teens struggling with life might see you valuing life lost and think that's the best way to feel valued. They might see your vigils, your sorrow and flowers, signs of living love and mistake them for a reason to step in front of a train. Instead we think they should see a single police officer patrolling the streets which will inevitably make them feel "protected." Cover up your deaths. Cover up the costs of your emotional repression and deadening individualism that causes the death of adolescents."
Pastoral response
Last time I checked stifling grief is one of the most effective ways to prolong misery and perpetuate violence. Since when do public officials get to dictate our rituals for the dead? Get out their and weep. For those we have lost. For what remains scooping up in the dust. Put flowers on the ground. Hold signs and candles. And if they arrest you, scream out for the sake of all our souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment