OPINION: Letter to the editor 

Six funerals. One day. One small town.

That should shake the people in Gloster awake. That should shake Mississippi awake.

In a rural community of less than 900 people, six funerals are not just six names in an obituary section. They are church members, classmates, neighbors, cousins, and elders. They are people in a town that is carrying too much loss.

When six funerals happen on the same Saturday, we cannot call it normal and move on.

Something is wrong.

This community is being buried under poverty and environmental neglect.  We are watching too many people die in our small rural community.  

Six funerals in one day should force hard conversations about pollution, economic abandonment, and the quiet suffering that defines too many small towns.

Because grief this heavy does not happen in isolation.

As a community, we will come together. People will cook for grieving families. Churches will open their doors. Prayers will rise through tears. That is what we do; we carry each other when the weight is heavy.

But resilience should not be mistaken for acceptance.

Six funerals in one day is not just a moment of mourning. It is an alarm bell.

This community and this state, should wake up.

#yourfavoriteenvironmentaljusticeactivist

#MemoryOfCurtisHarris

– Dr. Krystal Martin