Secret meetings this week at Fred’s University have put the future of the Opioid Death Monument in doubt. The monument is paid for by the Sicker Family Opioid Death Settlement Fund, which did not provide enough money to fully fund the project. Construction of the Fred’s University monument has begun at the former toxic waste dump Superfund site on the edge of campus, but the budget is already maxed out. The Sicker family has stepped forward and offered to provide more funds for the memorial, in exchange for Fred’s University promising to conduct the research on side effects of the Sicker’s latest drug, Poxycodone.
The Sicker family company, Revenue Pharma, is still in business despite a growing number of class action claims against it. Given the legal scrutiny, it has proven hard for Revenue Pharma to find a willing host for their research, and Fred’s University, with its crippling debt, aging faculty and largely part-time workforce, seems like a good match.
The Sickers have stipulated that the Opioid Death Monument, currently conceived of as a morbid theme park celebration of mortality and the afterlife, would be redesigned to feature a large cheerful Field of Poppies. In the new design, Wizard of Oz details replace the horror film aesthetic. What is currently slated to be the Lake of Tears would become an irrigation pond for the Field of Poppies with a yellow brick bridge into the flower field.
When the head of the student committee that helped come up with the original design objected that the theme of death had been entirely eliminated from the Death Memorial, the PR spokesman from Revenue Pharma countered that poppies can represent death as well as sleep, and that poppies have long been used as a symbol of remembrance and figure largely in World War I memorials. The PR rep went on to say that poppies also symbolize dreams and imagination, and this makes them the perfect symbol in a contemplative space.
“What could be a more fitting memorial to Opioid deaths than the beautiful flowers that caused them?” the Rep asked at a contentious meeting last week. “It is the beauty of opioids that they (temporarily) alleviate pain, and that is what we would want for a visitor to the Opioid Death Monument who comes to pay homage to a loved one lost to the drug.”
The issue may be moot if it is not possible to make poppies grow on the site, which is the location of a former whitewash and paint factory that used the pond as a dump.
**Starred Comments**
Gerald Sicker
A recent New York Times article explained that opium feels like a mother’s love. If you think of how Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz is an orphan, it makes sense that she finds the field of poppies so soothing. What lovely imagery for orphans who visit this monument to remember their dead parents! A balm for their pain.
Amanda Reel, Professor of English, Fred’s University
That’s insane! It is the Wicked Witch of the West who puts Dorothy to sleep in the field of poppies, specifically because their milk is poison! OMG read the book!
Underappreciated Graduate Student, Dept of Economics, Fred’s U
Revenue Pharma is going to get a tax deduction for its contribution to the Monument! And they want to rename it Poxycodone Park. Poor coverage of the facts here, dig deeper people :(.
Also Read:Work Begins on Opioid Death Memorial