Where Have All the Graveyards Gone?

Decades ago, Detroit started experiencing white flight. Then blacks started fleeing too. Now, the Detroit News reports, Departed-Americans are departing......which is to say, their remains no longer remain.

From 2002 through 2007, the remains of about 1,000 people have been disinterred and moved out of the city, according to permits stored in metal filing cabinets in the city's department of health. Looked at in another way, for about every 30 living human beings who leave Detroit, one dead human being follows.

The paper adds, "Although there is little information or statistical evidence regarding the phenomenon across the country, it is quite likely that Detroit and its surrounding communities lead the way, as it does in population loss among the living."

Of course, some places make it more complicated for the dead to leave. For instance, in Chicago, they have to register to vote at their new address.