Must-Read from Today's Papers

Randi Bjornstad in the Eugene Register-Guard has a gut-wrenching piece on the Suicide Kits that Sell Death By Mail. Three months ago, a friend-of-all-my-friends who had struggled with depression committed suicide. I had never met him. When I went to the University of Oregon for law school, a lot of the people I liked best were all involved in politics. They all seemed to love him. I think it's possible to love people without knowing them, so I can say without a doubt that I loved Nick Klonoski. As a kid from the Lane County sticks who was actively immersed in Lane County's Democratic politics from an early age, I quickly learned that we all might be liberals, but there are South Eugene liberals and everyone else. I wasn't part of the insular South Eugene world, but people like Nick make me wish I was. I never knew Nick or his family growing up, but I knew about him years ago, and loved his devout commitment to making the world a fairer, more just, more healthy place. I miss him deeply.

As I opened my paper this morning, then, it was with abject horror I read about how his suicide was actively and profitably solicited by a company from out of state. The company, which takes payment only by cash or check (no credit!) publishes a book with its death kits about "helium deliverance." Nick had a signed copy by him at his death. This company facilitates the death of susceptible people like Nick who struggle with depression. There is no level of moral outrage sufficient to respond to these motherfuckers.

Of all the things I struggle with about living in the Northwest, the lassiez-faire attitude towards human life disgusts me the most. I know there are plenty of people who see nothing wrong with the death kit manufacturer's involvement in Nick's suicide. I don't. This isn't an argument specifically with Oregon's Death With Dignity Law- Nick wasn't "terminally ill" and couldn't avail himself of its suicide protections, thanks be to God- but it points out the entirely questionable premise assisted suicide is based on. D.A. Alex Gardner captured the issue perfectly, I think. "It is so awful that somebody could make money, turning someone else's transient despair into death. If that is happening, it's something that needs to be changed." Senator Floyd Prozanski will sponsor a bill criminalizing these groups, the story says.

What I found awe-strikingly touching was the small note in the story that Senator Prozanski's pending bill wasn't initiated by a member of Nick's family. Nick's dad died a couple of years ago, and was the heart and soul of our state Democratic party. He was the state chairman in the early 1980s, and had educated hundreds of state leaders as a distinguished professor in the political science department at the University of Oregon. Nick's mom is Oregon's most prominent federal judge, and a perennial candidate for appointment the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nick, I'll miss you, and I want to do everything I can so these bastards never kill again.

(Photo: The school logo of Nick's Beloved Wolverines. Nick, rest in peace. I miss you man.)