What is it about American television that so distresses me? Forget the advertising and the trivial programs. I believe in "brain candy" just as much as the next guy–heck, I even bought a copy of People magazine last week. Jeez. I’ve even been known to eat "Slim Jims" when I think no one’s looking.
This morning I was switching between NBC’s "Today" show and the MSNBC morning talk program formerly known as "Imus" and I heard sequentially from Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who is a Republican candidate for President of the United States, and blip! back on NBC there was Dr. Jack Kevorkian, otherwise known as "Dr. Death".
Gov. Huckabee was talking about the need for America to have good health care. Blip. Dr. Death was talking about the need for America to have good euthenasia. Blip. Gov. Huckabee was talking about getting the government off our backs. Blip. Dr. Death was talking about euthenasia as a human right.
I was shaving. I use the Braun self cleaning electric razor which gives me a superior shave and which smells citrus fresh every morning. I was channel surfing and having a good shave and a cuppa coffee on an ordinary rainy summer morning in Ohio. I was comfortable. I felt good.
I wanted to join the TV Land conversation. Wanted to bring Ann Curry of the Today Show and Amy Robach of MSNBC and Dr. Death and Gov. Huckabee together for a good grape whalloping session. I wanted the TV to reflect a disability perspective. I wasn’t going to get it this morning of course. But I did have a good shave thanks to German technology. And here’s the problem as I saw it while shaving:
Many people with disabilities are distressed by the grassroots efforts to legalize euthenasia for the simple reason that it is conceivable that the disabled will be put to death by a corrupt medical care system. This is a serious concern and that’s why I wanted Dr. Death and Gov. Huckabee in the same room. We can’t guarantee quality of life for our citizens with the present health care crisis in the United States. Until we can provide everyone in a democracy with good health care it seems to me that introducing euthenasia into the current health care system is like rearranging those famous deck chairs on the Titanic. If we can’t deliver health care to over forty million people than we shouldn’t be delivering euthenasia either. I believe what I’m saying. But the thing with TV is that the medium won’t allow for this sort of articulated conversation. And this is why the blogosphere is so compelling these days.
I suspect that Gov. Huckabee is a nice man. I suspect that Jack Kevorkian is a creep. And I further suspect that they are both correct in their respective positions. But the quality of human life is the most important issue and TV doesn’t lend itself to that subject. I wish that it did. Personally, I’d happily pay 7 dollars a gallon for gas like they do in Europe if it meant that everybody had health care and could be protected from H HMO fraud and heartlessness.
This is a "disability" perspective and I suspect that it’s also a mainstream view.
Maybe we need a "quality of life" channel?
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 