Awriter I admire once pointed out that the ability to face unpleasant facts is what separates decent, sane grown-ups from immature jerks. The shot felt
around the countryAccording to the writer, Paul Fussell, exemplary unpleasant facts include: "that life is short and almost always ends messily; that if you live in the actual world, you can't have your own way; that if you do get what you want, it turns out not to be the thing you wanted; that no one thinks as well of you as you do yourself; and that one or two generations from now you will be forgotten entirely and the world will go on as if you had never existed."
On the surface, this catalog of unpleasantness might seem depressing. No one's ever accused me of being mature, but over the years I've found this list strangely liberating. This creed does not minimize life but places it in a context so that each day can be enjoyed, or at least coped with.
The fact that life is short and almost always ends messily is the brutal fact to come to grips with. Anyone who's lost a close friend or relative knows that. Once you've experienced such a loss, the world suddenly is divided into two types of people: those who have gone through the same loss and those who haven't.
Not surprisingly, those who have been through the loss tend to have little patience thereafter for the naive enthusiasm of those who haven't. That's not necessarily fair, but that's just the way it is.
What brings this subject forward at this time is the recent "physician assisted homicide" of a patient of Dr. Kevorkian's. Make no mistake, it was homicide, which means "any killing of one human by another." The legal degree of homicide (murder, manslaughter, etc.) is yet to be determined.
Suicide ultimately is an attempt to escape or control the "messy" way in which life often ends. "Doctor assisted suicide" is an attempt to make the process even less messy, especially for survivors, and, if possible, add some dignity to the proceedings.
"Doctor assisted homicide," or euthanasia, as it is euphemistically known, is a completely different matter on just about any scale you choose: morally, ethically, legally or religiously.
Add to the list of unpleasant facts mature adults have to face: Dr. Kevorkian -- whether you agree with him or not -- has forced a national discussion on death and dying.
I would be a little more comfortable with this instigator, however, if he did not appear to get so much pleasure out of his actions. He exudes an element of glee in his own publicity that imparts a stench on his crusade.
Discussion of these issues should not be controlled or dominated by zealots from one side or the other. And Kevorkian is the ultimate death zealot. While some consider him an enlightened being, others consider him one of the country's greatest serial killers.
Having beat the legal system on his previous assisted-suicide cases, he lost the platform on which to display his zealotry. So he upped the ante and with the help of "60 Minutes," a television show willing to trade the death of a tortured soul for ratings points, killed a man by lethal injection. Sure, the man wanted to die, but so do lots of people who don't have the wherewithal to kill themselves. Even death row inmates get an automatic appeal.
Let's be careful here. Should ritualized death become the law of the land, it likely will not be a kindly doctor or loving mate calling the final shots, but a Generation Triple X grandson with baseball cap on backward and numerous body piercings worried that grandad's long illness might deplete his future inheritance.
And another unpleasant fact is that granddad -- not wanting to be a bother -- just might agree with the immature jerk.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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