What bothers me most about the story I related in Part I of this article is that the young man in the story went through an “assisted suicide.” He didn’t shoot himself, or hang himself, or sit in a running car in the garage, or overdose on a drug. He took the time, effort, and money required to plan a trip to another country – roughly the distance between Washington, DC and Indianapolis – make that trip, visit a doctor who performs “assisted suicide,” and request and be given the “procedure.” This is not someone at the end of his rope. This is not someone who was desperate. This is someone who was following the assumption that life is disposable, and that a “death with dignity” is better than a life “without” it. 

I’m also bothered by the actions of his parents. They have gone on record as saying they supported his decision, and even absent that, they flew with him to Switzerland, implicitly supporting his decision anyway.

Instead of being grateful for being alive, which all of us should be every day, this young man was despondent that he would have to live a “second-class life.” Attitudes like that anger me. In the Western World, no matter how badly off you are, there is always someone else who is in a worse position. Where paralysis itself is concerned, people like Christopher Reeve, Mike Utley, Stephen Hawking, and others managed to get past the limitations and still live as productive members of society (whether we agree with their views or not.) Hawking, in particular, has dealt with a horrible wasting disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), AKA Lou Gehrig’s Disease – that has slowly robbed him of his ability to move. ALS normally kills its victims within 5 years. Dr. Hawking has lived with the disease for over 40. Dr. Hawking, himself, has considered himself lucky because, despite the illness, he has been successful both professionally and personally. That does not sound like a “second-class” life to me. Has Dr. Hawking led an easy life? Certainly not. Given the chance to trade places with him, I would have to decline. His life has been extremely challenging to a degree that, honestly, I cannot fathom. But there’s a big difference between challenging and “second-class.”

With all of that having been said, I can imagine that someone who is used to an athletic lifestyle and is suddenly rendered sedentary because of an injury or illness would be despondent. There is a saying that God does not give us more than we can handle. What that saying doesn’t note is that sometimes you need to get help from someone else to handle the curve ball life throws you. It was the love and support of his parents that this rugby player needed most. And it was they who failed him most, even more than he failed himself. Eighteen months elapsed between the player’s injury and his death. In that time, he had attempted suicide a few times. His parents, who had the duty to do everything in their power to help the man live, instead helped him die. Here again, I cannot say for sure what happened. I do not know if he went to therapy, if he saw doctors who could have helped him recover the use of his legs (or told him it was impossible), if he went through support groups, church groups, or even conversations with friends, but whatever his parents did to help was clearly not enough. 

People who are paralyzed are not destined to be societal parasites. Those who still have use of their arms and mind can still contribute in countless ways. What is required is the will to do what is right, and the courage to live with that condition. We’ve been conditioned to live in a perfect world where we are owed everything we have. We believe that this life is the end-all-be-all. When something happens to put a monkey wrench into that perfect world, we are taught to believe that some injustice has been performed (hence the presumption of racism when bad things happen to black people). We are taught that if we cannot fulfill our lives as we wish to, we are worthless. When adversity strikes, we rely on the government to help us out. And when all else fails, go visit Dr. Kevorkian. It’s OK, everyone goes to heaven.

How many times do we see successful people, particularly entertainers (actors, musicians, athletes, etc.), get in trouble for drugs and alcohol? How many of the rich and famous involve themselves in sex scandals – to the point that they believe that literally everyone does it?

Life requires courage. It also requires the knowledge that you cannot face its challenges alone. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball. Each of us is one bad driver away from life in a wheelchair, or one chemical away from life with cancer, or one heartbeat away from losing a loved one or a lifelong friend. Everything that happens to us is not going to be pleasurable or good. We should expect to be hurt, angry, betrayed, sad, lonely, tired, sick, or in pain at some point along the way. To chuck it all at the first sign of trouble, even serious trouble, is cowardly. And to council anyone toward taking their own life is reprehensible beyond description.

I heard a rather sickening tale yesterday. It involves desperation, despair, and the modern culture of death. In the spring of 2007, a young, promising rugby player in the UK was severely injured in a practice session. The injury left the young man paralyzed from the chest down. Spinal injuries are a constant worry for players in a number of sports, particularly rugby and American football, violent sports with very large players and many situations where several players will pile on top of each other. 

Well, last month, this 23-year-old kid flew from his native England to Switzerland and committed doctor-assisted suicide. He was accompanied on the trip by his parents, who apparently condoned this course of action. (I’m not about to spout a bunch of “conspiracy” theories about the motives of the parents. I wasn’t there, I have no idea what went through their minds.)

The Left tells us that “assisted suicide” is the only humane thing to do for someone who is living with a painful, terminal illness. “With death an inevitability, why not alleviate the person’s suffering?” they say. Oddly, I can understand the thinking (or, rather, feeling) that goes on there. It’s shallow, emotionally based, and misguided, but I can understand why they would feel that way.

The problem is that, as with all similar statements, something is missing. Death is inevitable for all of us. There is not a person in the world that will not die. Even Jesus died, though he rose from the dead 3 days later. Death is even more certain than taxes, which, with a little creative accounting, a low enough salary, and out-of-the-box shopping can, theoretically, be avoided. 

All of us will die. Most of us – the vast majority, in fact – do not know when and how, but that does not change the fact that it is inevitable. So the “inevitability” argument fails here.

Some might also argue that death – for someone who wants to commit “medicinal” suicide – is more than inevitable, it’s imminent. Yet, how many times have people been told “you have six months to live,” and gone on to live ten, fifteen years or more? The only time that death is truly imminent is in the last few days when death from whatever illness or injury cannot be avoided or even delayed. By then, it’s too late for assisted suicide to matter.

We can argue for days on the value of suffering, particularly the spiritual value, and I don’t consider myself well enough versed in the philosophy and theology behind that, so I will defer that part of the argument. I will simply say that for the purposes of this piece, I will grant that suffering should be alleviated where possible, and I will not argue about who is or is not suffering. It’s also not germane to my point.

This particular instance does not show an example of someone who has “six months to live.” This former rugby player was not approaching death. He had suffered a very serious injury, and that injury was likely to make the rest of his life, however long it was, difficult. But he was not, so far as I can determine, close to death. The advances that have been made in spinal cord injuries over the last 20 years have been amazing. Several American football players who have suffered paralyzing injuries on the field have recovered sufficiently to walk again. Two in particular are Dennis Byrd and Kevin Everett. Both players were told they would never walk again, and both defied that diagnosis. Everett, in particular, was on his feet within 4 months after his injury. Neither player will ever play football again, but they will also not spend their lives confined to a wheelchair.

Even if the rugby player’s injury was so severe that he would not walk again, he still had the use of his mind and his arms. He could have, with a little training and accommodation, gotten any of a great many jobs outside athletics. He chose, instead, to give up on his life and have himself killed. 

And that’s the world we live in today. We are so stuck on the idea that if we can’t live the life of our dreams, we are worthless. Life itself has been made to be disposable, and people choose to give up rather than struggle through a challenge. And I blame the Left for this attitude, for several reasons.

The first is obvious. The total disregard for human life when that life is inconvenient is a doctrine of the Left. Abortion, Euthanasia, “Assisted Suicide”, and destructive Embryonic Stem Cell Research are all ways in which the Left supports the active killing of inconvenient humans. Furthermore, with their soft-on-crime attitudes, and their “it’s society’s fault” mentality, respect for life plummets further because those who take another’s life illegally are not shown justice. They are coddled, “rehabilitated,” put on work furloughs, given a platform from which to speak to the world, released early from prison, and even celebrated. Intolerance, to the Left, has become a more vile and frightening crime than murder. Just ask OJ Simpson and Mark Fuhrman.

The second can be blamed on the secularization of Western society and the liberalization of religion. We’ve come to a point where it is a common belief that “everyone goes to Heaven.” No longer is it necessary to be a Christian or follow the Word of God. It’s not even required that one live a particularly good life or to be sorry for the things you might have done wrong. The Left pushes the position that morality is what you make it to be, so long as it conforms to their vision. Violating the Most Holy Tenet of Diversity is about the only sin in the Left’s pantheon, and it is with that one sin that they can justify Adolph Hitler’s residence in Hell along with a few conservatives.

Since everyone goes to heaven, no one has to worry about working hard in this life. Since you don’t have to work hard in this life, and you’re going to an even better place in the next one, life, again, becomes disposable. 

But that’s all a lie. If that were true, life here would be meaningless, and God the Son would have died on the Cross for nothing. Our life isn’t measured in how much wealth we accumulate or how much fun we’ve had. The one who dies with the most toys loses, because he’s going to have the most to answer for when he meets St. Peter. Life isn’t about living the most pleasurable life you can; it’s about trying to get into that most exclusive of clubs: Heaven. No, life doesn’t have to be miserable. You don’t have to live in squalor and die of plague at 45 to get into heaven, nor do you have to be a cloistered, flagellant monk. Such a life isn’t a guarantee, anyway. The poor are just as susceptible to sin as the rich. The rich just have an easier time of committing sins.

You do, however, have to live a good, moral, life, and make a positive impact on others. That’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be. Nothing worthwhile is. And one of the worst things you can do is throw it away, whether it be on futile pursuits of pleasure (through drugs, promiscuous sex, or excessively risky behavior), or by an act of intentional self harm. Even worse is the refusal to accept (by asking for it) forgiveness of your sins, whether you don’t believe you have committed any, or because you think that they are unforgivable. They who die of their own despair probably fit into one of those categories.

And so we come back to the late rugby player. Again, I do not know what was going on inside his head, so I cannot say anything for certain. All I can do is conjecture as to what happened based upon what I see. I’ll wager he believed that since his playing career was over, and that he didn’t have any other skills he wasn’t going to be able to make a living wage. He probably also thought his paralysis was going to prevent him from being a useful member of society. At 23, he may have seen that he was never going to have children (probably), or perform the acts that cause children, and that is a devastating loss for someone so young. Playing in the back of his mind was probably “everyone goes to heaven.”

And so, he went to a country where you can ask the doctor to kill you. He was supported in this endeavor by his parents, who came along with him. And he was enabled by a culture that treats life as a disposable commodity.

Scandal is the leading of another into sin. If someone commits a sin through your encouragement, you are as guilty of that sin as they are, and perhaps more so. How many of us have this young man’s blood on our hands for supporting this culture of death?

HJG

So, here’s the problem. For the first time in United States history we have a member of a racial minority as a serious candidate for President. Sure, every election cycle Al Sharpton and/or Jesse Jackson make their runs in the Democrat primaries, and a few blacks make their way into the Republican race (Alan Keyes, for example) but none has seriously contended, and certainly none has been nominated before now. And yes, despite the fact that there’s a 50-50 chance that Barack Obama will be the next US President, we’re still called a racist nation. As a matter of fact, since Obama became the nominee, the claims of racism have gotten more frequent and more ludicrous.

Martin Luther King, Jr. must be rolling, pitching and yawing in his grave. His “Dream” that “black men and white men” could judge each other “not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character,” continues to be lost on the Party that claims to support minorities. 

We have come to a time where character matters for naught, and appearance is everything. As a result, racism is presumed in all white people; therefore, anything bad that happens to a black person is a direct result of racist whites. Furthermore, a black person usually must “overcome” white racism to get into any position of authority, and since most are unable to do so, laws and regulations – such as Affirmative Action – must be enforced to ensure equal outcomes (rather than the more desirable equal opportunity.)

It has now come to a point where the reasons that Barack Obama does not have a commanding, insurmountable lead in the polls are all associated with his race, as opposed to his policies, experience, and associations with people who have anti-American attitudes. The sad fact is that this is nothing new, nor is it unexpected. The expectation now is that when bad things happen to black people, the bigotry of whites is blamed.

There is a parade of the convicted and acquitted whose arrests or punishments are alleged to be racially motivated: Mike Tyson, Mumia Abu Jamal, Stanley “Tookie” Williams, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, and so forth. The Justice system is alleged to be racially biased, as evidenced by the fact that blacks account for a greater percentage of the prison population than in society as a whole. Those who favor a merit-based system as opposed to racial quotas in government, business, or education are declared racists. Rioting after an unpopular court decision (such as the 1994 Rodney King trial) is dismissed as people letting off steam, or having a legitimate gripe against “the system.” Banks are called racist for not giving loans to unqualified minorities, and then again they are called racist when they DO give loans to unqualified minorities and the individuals default on the loans.

The presumption of racism is usually intended to benefit a black person. There are two famous incidents of a black woman alleging that she was the victim of a racially motivated rape: Tawana Brawley in 1987 and Crystal Gale Mangum in 2006. OJ Simpson’s lawyers used race to get Simpson acquitted for a murder he probably committed. (Simpson subsequently wrote a book about how it was done “If [He] Did It.”)

Now Barack Obama is using that presumption of racism to allege that anyone, particularly independents, who doesn’t vote for him must be a racist. The theory is that his positions are so irrefutable by reasonable people that only unreasonable people (racists) would choose not to vote for him. This can be for one of two reasons: Either (a) he actually believes this, thus any debate is motivated by racial hostility; or (b, and, I believe, more likely) he realizes that his extreme leftist message is, in fact, lost on probably 2/3 of the population and he needs some way to scare people into voting for him. Either way, he is either unfathomably arrogant and abysmally ignorant of the mindset of the American people, or he has chosen to use dishonest scare tactics to garner votes. 

No reasonable person suggests that minorities should not have the same opportunity to succeed as the majority population. It is unreasonable to favor whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc., solely because of their race. That said, reasonable people also do not believe that minorities should have any special privileges based solely on their race, a proposition put forth by a great many unreasonable people. Evidence of this can be seen in the demands for slavery reparations and Affirmative Action. Further, we can see this in the perpetuation of the myth that racism is the primary cause of all the problems encountered by blacks. So unreasonable are those that believe in the pervasiveness of American racism that even when people of their own race oppose such views, they are denigrated as “Uncle Toms” and “Sellouts” to the white establishment (e.g. Bill Cosby). That makes for a cozy situation for the purveyors of racial tension. Any white person (such as myself) who says that blacks need to step out of the victim mentality, take control of their own lives, and earn their way ahead rather than having it handed to them, cannot have credibility because we “don’t know what it’s like to be black.” Any black person with the same message is considered a sellout, and thus loses any credibility. The only people who have credibility are those who claim that “your problems are not your fault,” because that’s what people want to hear.