Missouri's 'Jedi Disposal Act' Would Let You Pull a Darth Vader, Kind Of
It's a bummer that the Missouri bill nicknamed the "Jedi Disposal Act" does not, as the name suggests, legally recognize the Jedi's right to live on after death as blue ghosts.
Instead, Senate Bill 455, which is awaiting the signature of Missouri Governor Parson, would legalize open-air cremations — that is, burning the deceased on some kind of funeral pyre. As first reported by the Kansas City Star, the nickname stuck because lawmakers couldn't help but think of the Jedi funeral rites displayed after the death of Darth Vader, who is burned on a pyre at the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
The nickname represents an odd melding of a very specific Star Wars reference with the serious matters of funeral license regulation and a ritual with roots in Native American and Viking cultures.
It would also put Missouri on the funerary map. Presently, the only public open-air cremations performed in America take places in Crestone, Colorado, and are only available to county residents or land owners. A state-wide permitting system appears to be unprecedented, and the bill's sponsor, state Senator Jason Holsman (D-Kansas City), is quoted by the Star suggesting his bill "could end up spurring a cottage industry" for open-air cremation in Missouri.
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/06/17/missouris-jedi-disposal-act-would-let-you-pull-a-darth-vader-kind-of
= new reply since forum marked as read
pretty soon. The only glitch might be that I live in Illinois and they live in Missouri so there is the problem of getting me across the Poplar Street Mississipi River bridge. I am confident, they are pretty resourceful.
