[Magdalen] The Deen Controversy

[ME Michaud]

We need to remember that the people we knew who were old were
survivors of a generation of people who died young and of diseases
mostly preventable and even curable today. My grandmother, who
died when I was thirteen, had a sister who died of TB sixty years
before I was born. High blood pressure, thyroid disease, and
elevated cholesterol killed loads of people. People with both Type1
and Type 2 diabetes died, the former usually before adulthood.
Kidneys failing? Too bad.

One of the successes of modern medicine is that it saves the lives
of people (like Paula Deen) who've lived unwisely. Her life is her own
business, of course. But she gleefully advocated for, shall we say,
bad choices for others and she should take responsibility for that.
-M