THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Anna Kooiman and Tucker Carlson
Fox News host Anna Kooiman suggested on Sunday that a terminal cancer patient in California was “cowardly” for planning to take her own life instead of suffering. Los Angeles attorney Christy O’Donnell recently told People magazine that doctors gave her six months to live after she was diagnosed with brain cancer, and that’s why she was fighting for the right to end her own life at home with her family…. On Sunday’s edition of Fox & Friends, host Anna Kooiman reminded Fox News contributor Father Jonathan Morris that 29-year-old terminal cancer patient Brittany Maynard had moved to Oregon last year because the state’s death with dignity law gave her the right to take her own life…. “And now a single mother in California with terminal cancer is campaigning for the very same right to end her battle at home with her daughter,” Kooiman said. “But is this plan, is it a brave plan or a cowardly plan?”
There are few things in this world I find more difficult to comprehend than those authoritarian Conservatives who preach personal liberty…only to contradict themselves when it comes to behaviors they disapprove of. This is particularly true when it comes to a terminal illness. If a patient staring a lingering, painful death in the face can’t be granted the right to determine the timing and method of their death, then what does “freedom” really mean? And how is it that compassion-deprived, humanity-deficient zealots like Kooiman feel they have the right to speak for those living with a terminal illness? Whatever happened to walking in someone’s else’s shoes before passing judgment on them? At least her partner in authoritarian judgment, Father Jonathan Morris, was kind enough to offer that “you never know what’s going on in the soul of that individual person” before essentially backing Kooiman.
Not surprisingly, Fox and Friends cohost Tucker Carlson wondered why Los Angeles attorney Christy O’Donnell was turning her impending death into “a political issue.” Carlson, evidently an expert on the pain and suffereing associated with terminal illness, feels “you can do these things without trying to force your views on others and to change the law, and to make it into, again, a political spectacle.”
Right…because for Carlson, everything is political. It’s not about O’Donnell wanting to be able to die on her own terms, rather then her cancer dictating the terms to her. It’s not about a person wanting to exercise a measure of control over their last mortal act…and evidently Kooiman feels it appropriate to debate the moral and political correctness of what should be a very private decision. O’Donnell isn’t the one turning her right to die with dignity into a political issue; Kooiman and Carlson are…but like any good Conservative, they project the blame for their inhumanity and lack of a credible argument onto their adversary.
Tucker even tries to sound reasonable and compassionate, saying “it’s difficult to judge, because you’re not them”…and then he proceeds to do exactly that. How and why he feels he has standing to judge anyone making a decision about their final days is something I can’t fathom. Unless you’re walking in that person’s shoes, unless you’re facing the question of how to deal with what could be a lingering painful death, you have but one choice: shut the f—k up. You have no right or standing to pass judgment on how another chooses to live, or in this case end, their life.
None of these self-righteous authoritarians find themselves living with the death sentence Christy O’Donnell is. If she wants to be able to die at home at a time of her choosing with her daughter present, who are they to hold forth and debated whether her choice is a “cowardly” or “brave” decision? It’s none of their damned business, which as Conservatives you’d think they understand. The problem, though, is that Conservatives are ALL about liberty and freedom…until they run across something that offends their tender sensibilities.
Kooiman and Carlson have a very simple choice available to them: They can support O’Donnell’s right as a free citizen to make her own choices…or they can admit that they’re hypocrites. You don’t get to pick and choose which aspects of liberty and freedom you approve of. If you oppose the concept of Death With Dignity, your opinion matters only if you grant O’Donnell her right to choose for herself…and/or if you are facing the same sad denouement. No one who doesn’t know the pain and the fate O’Donnell is dealing with should have the right to determine what decisions she gets to make and when she gets to make them.
You either believe in liberty and personal freedom, or you should just admit that, because you believe yourself to be a superior moral being, you have the right to dictate to others how they live and/or die. If you can’t see your way clear to doing that, you’re just another common, garden-variety Conservative hypocrite who doesn’t give a damn about anyone or anything other than your tender sensibilities.
I can only hope that neither Kooiman nor Carlson find themselves facing the terrible and painful end that is O’Donnell’s future. No one deserves that, and no one, no matter how craven or self-righteous, deserves to have the “cowardice” or “bravery” of their decision debated on Fox and Friends.
