[Magdalen] Lubitz.

Lynn Ronkainen houstonklr at gmail.com
Mon Mar 30 02:52:57 UTC 2015


Thank you for these words Allan.
Lynn

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 29, 2015, at 4:37 PM, Allan Carr <allanc25 at gmail.com> wrote:

Some musing.

Two years ago, when I came to after an abdominal aortic aneurism which is
almost always fatal, the surgeon told me I was a lucky man. A few days
later, after I mentioned to a minister friend that I really wondered "why
me?", meaning how did I get to be in the few percent who live, she stated
that that I was involved in a deep theological question. I didn't know that
and I'm still not sure of it.

Dying would have been an easy way out, considering dying from peripheral
neuropathy as I may do. I've thought a lot about suicide, particularly
assisted suicide, and have lamented not living in Oregon or Washington
state. They''re trying once again in California to pass such a law. I hope
they do. However, becoming just another suicide in the Carr family, and its
predecessors, is sort of repellent.

People jump off of bridges over freeways and hope to kill themselves by
being crashed into, never mind what happens to others in the accident. I
can't fathom that thinking. There is a high bridge over a gorge not far
from here that people use. For some reason, a debate over whether to
install suicide prevention fences has gone on year after year and a fence
has never been installed. I'm not in good enough shape to walk out there
anyway.

I'm also really pissed that my wife, almost a saint and someone who, after
her nursing diploma, really worked hard to first get her BA and then her
masters, should come down with Alzheimers and be losing he faculties as
quickly as she is.

I'm not involved in Lenten madness. I'm 84, do not have a trivial illness
and neither does my wife. I think a lot about these things, have considered
my own suicide, and, truthfully, am disdainful of someone who kills 150
other people in his own suicide.

> On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 1:33 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> Where is the "like" button when you need it?  I think perhaps some Lenten
> over-sensitivity is coming into play again.  Please, let's not get
> fractious.  The guy was a wacko, whether or not he was mentally ill -- and
> that's not completely clear at this time.  There are plenty of mentally ill
> people who are wacko, and plenty who are not.  These are not synonymous,
> but can and do overlap sometimes.
> 
> Ann
> 
> The Rev. Ann Markle
> Buffalo, NY
> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
> blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com
> 
> On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 2:22 PM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> I've been staying out of this discussion largely because I can see both
>> sides, but wacko and retard seem to me to be of a totally different
>> nature/degree. Retard was a widely used/accepted term for the mentally
>> challenged when I was growing up. We have learned to be more sensitive to
>> such persons whose challenges are not of their own making. I would not
> use
>> the term wacko to simply describe a person with other mental health
> issues
>> either, but I willingly use it to describe persons whose
> beliefs/attitudes
>> I consider ludicrous (e.g. Ted Cruz) whether or NOT they are are
> diagnosed
>> with mental health issues. Anyone who is willing to kill 150 people in a
>> single act qualifies IMNSHO.
>> 
>>> On Sunday, March 29, 2015, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Allan,
>>> I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying, just with the use of
> the
>>> term "wacko." To me that trivializes and ridicules what is a tragic
>> illness.
>>> It's like calling someone who is developmentally challenged a "retard."
>>> 
>>> YMMV, of course.



-- 
Allan Carr


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