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SYSTEM BASHING
BY ANANA MUSS
(a monologue)
ANDREW DAVID
IT IS YOUR BODY! IT IS YOUR LIFE!
BY J. D. JENKINS
My primary physician is Dr. Kevorkian.
-BETTE MIDLER
O.'K»
.•1 .■ ■■.
j
ft We as a nation were to eliminate every dangerous
drug, every faulty auto part, remove every dunk driver from the
road, eliminate guns from the streets, and every other pet
grievance concerning life’s dangers, vrould we live forever?
I think not. There are some who teach an idea that death is
a condition that must be equated with a cause. If there is no
cause, there will be no death, right? Our nation has adopted
a philosophy of self-delusion: I am my brother's keeper.
There are some of our fellow citizens that long for death
every day they are forced to live on in a never ending nightmare
of pain and suffering. To these and all others there is hope on
the horizon.
The fight that Dr. Jack Kevorkian is fighting one of
the very gallant battles in the history of social protest. Here is
a man standing for a principle that simply put is: People should
not be forced to suffer and should be allowed to end their lives
wth dignity and with a minimum of pain. The fight is being
waged against religious and judicial institutions. The religious
institutions are threatened if the people are no longer afraid to
die. If people are no longer afraid of meeting an all-avenging
God or are more afraid of current suffering then they are of
future judgment, religion is in trouble. The people who earn their
living in the religion business are threatened. The power over
people's lives is decreased. Religion and the religious are in
trouble.
The judicial institutions enforce the religious codes that
rule people's lives. Western religious codes make suicide a
great crime. It is considered self-murder, a desecration and
destruction of the true temple of God. Some laws are easily
changed. Laws that protect the basic religious codes don't
change. The masses acting without regard to religious and
judicial authority is the greatest threat to the power of these
institutions. There is fear that spiritual and judicial anarchy will
follow when people act out what is right in their own eyes.
Dr. Kevorkian's struggle is much more important than
the question of doctor assisted suicide. It evokes the question,
"Does humanity have the courage to break with the religiously
code of conduct that has ruled its life?
There is a close link between the issue of physician
assisted suicide and the issue of abortion.There are candidates
for high political office who would have every religious code
vigorously enforced. The extreme religious right within the
Republican Party's highest ranks want a Constitutional Amend
ment that bans all abortions. The religious powers that be are
fighting back to protect their codes of conduct. Dr. Kevorkian
has been placed on trial three times for the same action. He
helped people exit a world that was full of pain for them. The
courts and prosecutors are acting like the inquisitors of old.They
would mete out punishment on those who oppose religiously
imposed codes.
There is wthin the Constitution the idea of separation of
Church and State. The Bill of Rights and Constitutional amend
ments are for the purpose of guaranteeing rights and restricting
action. The movement toward a Constitutional amendment to
ban abortion would restrict access for all women to the private
and knowledgeable care of their physicians. There is no logical
reason for this restriction. There is only an emotional reaction
based upon the fanned fires of religious fervor. In the case of
Physician assisted suicide there is the issue of a person desiring
to have power over their own body. An individual wants the right
to make a decision and work wth their doctor. In much the same
way slavery made people prisoners to a master’s will, so pain
can be the master of any person's life. There are people w4io
would be content to live out their lives in the chains of their pain.
Others would be free and would be wiling to take the risk of
escape at any cost. Some wll make it. Others because of their
attempt will suffer even greater pain for having tried and failed.
When the emancipation from slavery and the Constitutional
guarantee of freedom came, people were able to make their
own choices. Many stayed where they were. Many moved on.
The right to a free choice is what proved to be so important.
If there is to be any amendment to the Constitution it
should be one that guarantees the right of each person to freely
choose what is best for their own body in both life and death.
Perhaps it might say:
No government or institution shall impose any
sanction or penalty on any individual for exercising his
or her inalienable right to choose what is right for them
selves. In bodily function, and in the event of the individ
ual's death, dignity shall be protected and unwanted pain
relieved.
J.D. Jenkins lives in Astoria. He is often seen in local
theatrical and musical productions.
THE LAST GARAGE SALE
1163 Marine Dr., Astoria, Oregon (503) 338-6789
How do you think it's going?
You know I'm depressed and it's getting worse and you
know there is nothing you can do about it. You just sit there and
regurgitate your trite cliched phrases and pray that one of your
clients doesn't commit suicide. I'm sure you could explain that
away, too... Freud or the tnals of our ever changing world, and
the client would not be around to tell you what an inefficient ass
hole you are. But you would work it through. Let me guess. . .for
me you would plant a large white daliah Oh gee, I am special.
I'm surprised this whole room doesn't just fly apart
around us from the revolution of the life force. From a revolt of
all the humane energy that is inside all of us waiting to be tap
ped, to be used, to be communicated to each other instead of
the clinically correct bullshit that passes between counselor and
sicko I know I'm in a bad place right now, but if I can't talk to
you...Oh, you know that is not what I mean. Yeah, I could sit and
talk to you all day and make you rich and of Wiat use? You are
so controlled. You should have been a monk so you could revel
in your control and win God’s praise at the same time. I'm sure
there are no thank-you's here on earth. There shouldn't be any
way. The only reason counselling helps people is that it adds
some structure that was taken away by the breakdown of the
extended family in our society. The same breakdown that made
daycares, nursing homes and support groups necessary It has
become very middle class to go to your counselor. You wear
your "I go to my counselor" stripes on your sleeve. Anyway, I'm
surprised this place doesn't just fly into splinters in a whirlwind
and leave us sitting here on a bare floor looking at each other. It
wouldn't take us because we are probably not worth messing
with. Have you ever read Hershell & The Hanukkah Goblins?
You should read it about six times till you think you understand
it. Then you should have some little kid explain it to you. It has
more psychotherapy in it than all your books with the big words
that make you sound so professional and important.
You know you are the real sinner here because you
know what is really going on and you just sit there tipped back in
our chair vwth your left ankle resting on your right knee, with your
head tilted slightly back like you are really contemplating some
thing and when the big hand on the clock is either straight up or
straight down everything is all wrapped up and we are out of
here. One of these days the life-force is going to get tired of you.
It is going to ring you out so bad that you will be worse off than if
you had a prefrontal lobotomy. You'll be like a pithed frog in the
specimen tray in freshman biology lab, like a balloon that has
been blown up for a week and when the air is let out is just a
shriveled lifeless piece of parched dead skin lying on the floor.
You sit like this is a board game. The first offender with
a DUII can take diversion rather than be convicted. Of course he
jumps at the chance. After his state ordered evaluation and state
ordered pee-test he comes to you for Alcohol Education on
Saturday mornings and a weekly counseling session. You make
sure everything you say is clinically correct and check all the
right boxes so the state doesn't get your ass. Beyond that it's
like a bunch of pawns with pithed brains moving mechanically
around the board to get through the system. The ones who get
"home" first are the ones who figure out that the word counselor
is a misnomer. Even if a person has started drinking a little more
than he would like (which is indicated by the DUH) he soon
learns that trying to get help through the system is the wrong
thing to do. If he admits to having any drinking problem he will
be in the system for years. The only way to get "home" is to
convince the counselor that the system has educated him well
in alcohol abuse and he understands that he exhibited poor
judgment and his behavior was not connected to any catalyst
that will elicit the same behavior again, i.e., make him drink. And
that he has turned his life around, is working full time, spending
weekends camping with the family and has taken up his old
hobby of whittling bird whistles at home in front of the fireplace
passing the time in the evenings. Of course the counselor is not
convinced and the client has received no therapy that is of any
real use to him. The counselor has been able to check all the
right boxes because the client has sworn in front of God and
State that he is reformed.
The omnipotent life-force rises with renewed zeal from
the repression of the inner voice, the repression of emotions that
if expressed would offend others because we no longer know
howto relate and consider human and humane interactions.Our
world is too impersonal, bureaucratic, computerized, striving
under middle class America. We are forgetting that we possess
that which cannot be computerized. Our emotions, our soul,
our inner eye, our inner voice, our connection to the collective
universal energy. We can still hug and smile and sing. Counsel
ing should be personal help for the individual not dictated, regi
mented group programs that only teach calculated deceptive
maneuvers that are not relevant to the original problem. We
learn the methods that fit into our legal system to get down the
path on the board game without "going to jail" or getting caught
in other circuitous entangling paths instead of "home." We go to
meetings and lie while we smile and nod appropriately and pay
attorneys and counselors thousands of dollars instead of the
state.
Yes, I see it is that time. Am I emotionally well, coach?
No, love my job. . .no desire to drink.
Annan Amuss is the nom d6 plum of a longtime Astoria
resident.
Open Monday thru Saturday Noon - 5 p.m.
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