Doctor Death Meets His Maker

[Uncensored2008]

Why is it that you cannot interpret the word "choice" or "leftist."

Are you claiming that bod is not a leftist? Are you claiming that she wasn't cheering death?

Libertarians believe people have the right to choose, for themselves, to live or die.

So?

 

[Bfgrn]

I went to the links that showed Kevorkian's artwork. It said he was fascinated by death, I don't see a problem there, I too am fascinated with death. Anything that has to do with forensics and autopsies and funeral preparations, interest me quite a bit!
I didn't know he did paintings tho, I just followed his assisted suicide as some called it. I don't like it called that, I rather see him as helping aid those who are in pain and suffering. Doctor Death some called him, but he had a family and friends who stood by him and loved him. As well as many patients and the patient's families who were very grateful for him. It's a shame we have a law that tells us when and how long we have to suffer, and not let us be in charge of our own lives!

"I Have a Rendezvous with Death"

It was one of John F. Kennedy's favorite poems and he often asked his wife to recite it and even his young daughter Caroline could recite it.

Dissolve to 1963

Summer had seemed reluctant to leave that year. Oct. 5, in fact, was such a lovely day that President John F. Kennedy's National Security Council held its regularly scheduled meeting outdoors, in the Rose Garden of the White House.

The president's daughter, Caroline, was 5 years old then, and the outdoor meeting made her father more accessible to her than he would otherwise be. Standing at his side, she tugged for his attention. She had something important to tell him.

For a time or two, he was able to put her off with the "not now" defense used by all parents.

But whatever Caroline had to say could not wait. The president gave in. And with the members of the National Security Council looking on, Caroline began to recite:


I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air-
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath-
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.


Family poem

It was a monumental poem for a 5-year-old to memorize, let alone recite. But the president's daughter did so flawlessly. She had been coached, however. Seeger's "Rendezvous" was Kennedy's favorite poem. He had recited it to Jacqueline on their first night together at Hyannis, following their honeymoon in 1953. Jacqueline later committed the poem to memory and frequently recited it back to her husband. She then taught it to Caroline.

Inner music

In his well-researched book, "Why Was JFK Killed and The Unspeakable," author James W. Douglass writes, "After Caroline said the poem's final word, `rendezvous,"' Kennedy's national security advisers sat in stunned silence. One of them, describing the scene three decades later said the bond between father and daughter was such that "it was as if there was an inner music he was trying to teach her."

Let it be noted again that Caroline Kennedy, age 5, recited "Rendezvous" on Oct. 5, 1963. Seven weeks later, her father was assassinated in Dallas.

This made chills go up my spine, and down my arms!

At his Inauguration, President Kennedy invited one of his favorite poets, Robert Frost, to take part in the ceremony and recite some of his work.

Three years later, on Oct. 26, 1963, a month before his own demise, President Kennedy gave a Convocation address as part of the ground breaking ceremonies for the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College (Frost had died in January 1963).

He gave what has become my favorite JFK speech. In it, he describes Robert Frost as "one acquainted with the night". But I have come to understand that JFK was also talking about himself.

President Kennedy was only 46 when he died, but he was "one acquainted with the night." In his short lifetime he'd been given the last rights of the Catholic Church 3 times. He was a sickly youth and had long bouts of being bedridden. The severe back injury he suffered when his PT boat was sunk during WWII almost cost him his life as a young Congressman. Facing his own mortality and being "one acquainted with the night" gave him a wisdom and inter-perspective well beyond his years. It made more than a man for his time, it made him a man for all times. It was and still is a great loss to our nation he was cut down. The history of this country has taken a cynical and downward turn since that November day in Dallas.

Here is an excerpt from that speech at Amherst College:

A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.

In America, our heroes have customarily run to men of large accomplishments. But today this college and country honors a man whose contribution was not to our size but to our spirit, not to our political belief but to our insight, not to our self-esteem, but to our self- comprehension. In honoring Robert Frost, we therefore can pay honor to the deepest sources of our national strength. That strength takes many forms, and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant. The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.

Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Robert Frost. He brought an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the platitudes and pieties of society. His sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation. "I have been," he wrote, "one acquainted with the night." And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair. At bottom, he held a deep faith in the spirit of man, and it's hardly an accident that Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths, which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored during his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fiber of our national life.

If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.


The speech that make chills go up my spine, and down my arms is the speech never delivered. The speech he would have given at the Dallas Trade Mart where the motorcade was only 5 minutes from when he was assassinated.

Here is how he was to conclude that speech:

Remarks Prepared for Delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas, November 22, 1963

"We in this country, in this generation, are--by destiny rather than choice--the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of "peace on earth, good will toward men." That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

 

[Samson]

Why is it that you cannot interpret the word "choice" or "leftist."

Are you claiming that bod is not a leftist? Are you claiming that she wasn't cheering death?

Libertarians believe people have the right to choose, for themselves, to live or die.

So?

"So," I suppose I need to draw you a fucking picture:

I don't know if bod is a "leftist"

I do know that you don't have to be a "leftist" to support giving an individual the choice to live or die: Libertarians support "Choice." Libertarians are not "leftists."

Logic doesn't seem to be your strongest asset.

 

[Uncensored2008]

"So," I suppose I need to draw you a fucking picture:

I don't know if bod is a "leftist"

It's not difficult to ascertain, read a few of her posts.

I do know that you don't have to be a "leftist" to support giving an individual the choice to live or die:

So?

How does that alter my statement?

Libertarians support "Choice." Libertarians are not "leftists."

I urged RW to exercise such a choice just a few posts back!

Logic doesn't seem to be your strongest asset.

Are you sure that it's me you want to pick a fight with?

 

[Samson]

Are you sure that it's me you want to pick a fight with?

True: It wouldn't really be fair unless I was unconscious.

 

[Uncensored2008]

True: It wouldn't really be fair unless I was unconscious.

This is interesting. You and I are on the same side of about 90% of the issues which come up around here, I've really staked out no position on this issue at all; yet you are determined to get into a flame war.

Any particular reason, or is it just that time of month?

 

[Samson]

True: It wouldn't really be fair unless I was unconscious.

This is interesting. You and I are on the same side of about 90% of the issues which come up around here, I've really staked out no position on this issue at all; yet you are determined to get into a flame war.

Any particular reason, or is it just that time of month?

I just call'em like I see'em, Sweetheart.

 

[geauxtohell]

Murder is murder and this is not civil liberties, not even close.

And yall wonder why liberalism is a mental disorder.

You are right. Murder is murder, and this doesn't even come close to fitting the legal definition of murder.

If it did, Kavorkian would have been charged with murder.

He wasn't.