So I was pretty excited about Jack Kevorkian coming to my school last week, mainly because I wanted to hear about his personal experience with euthanasia. It was held at the UC arena, where about 2,600 persons showed up to see him that night. First, I have to say, I was a bit unimpressed by the fact that there was no introduction whatsoever. As he was walking up the steps onto the stage the audience began to clap. He then continued straight to the microphone and began talking. It surprised me because at every other lecture that I have been to, there is always an introduction and it creates a setting. Well, maybe if I wanted a setting I should go read a book, right? The other thing that bothered me was that he was struggling with some poles he had brought with him. The man is 80 years old, and no one thought of perhaps helping him out by setting up this strange ornament he was trying to build before his speech? But now that I think about it, maybe there was a reason as to why no one helped him with those poles...
I don't know the exact words, but his first sentence was somewhere along the lines of, "you are all slaves because of the government." Well, you know, I'm probably as open-minded as they get, but if I wanted to hear about how we're all slaves I could just come online, get on some message board and begin the never-ending war between the left and the right. So that threw me off a bit. He then proceeded to explain how the United States is a fascist country, which pretty much encompassed his entire speech. In between his rant, he said a lot of things I did agree with, but he also said some that just didn't make sense. For example, he mentioned that when a crime is committed, it should be left upon the victim (or victim's family) and the accused to decided what the punishment will be, if any at all. That's just a bit too extreme for my taste. We need certain laws that people need to obey. Plus, I am not a believer of an "eye for an eye" world. He also spoke a lot about the 9th amendment and how we should read it thoroughly to fully understand our rights. His history lesson continued for quite some time, at which point, people began to leave. I think most just wanted to hear about euthanasia.
Throughout his entire speech, there was a man who was sitting behind him that kept coming up to him and whispering into his ear, at which point Kevorkian would add a note to what he had just said, or just stop talking about it altogether. Because of this, I assumed it was his lawyer. Finally, questions and answer came, which was like a nice cold lemonade on a hot summer afternoon! This is when the good stuff began. But of course, the microphones weren't working correctly and Kevorkian has major hearing issues (he is 80 years old, so you can imagine). And so it took a few screams into the microphones, people walking up to the stage to speak to him directly, and finally a man who became the "messenger" from the microphone to Kevorkian's ears. After that entire fiasco, we were finally able to enjoy the question and answer portion. The questions ranged from people who supported him to those who think he should still be in prison.
When, finally, asked about euthanasia, he began laughing and said, "I'm on parole." That made the entire audience burst into laughter. The man can barely talk about euthanasia because he's on parole and that lawyer of his makes sure he doesn't get himself into trouble. However, he assured us that in just a couple of months, his parole is over, which again caused a major laughing uproar. He also mentioned that if we were interested, the instructions of how to perform euthanasia have all been published online in "great detail." Another clapping and laughing uproar.
He then said he wanted to finish up the night with some quotes. And so he and his lawyer put up the american flag on the same poles he was struggling with earlier. He then told us that the way this country was headed, we would eventually turn into a Nazi Germany regime. He said, "Let's all say the Pledge of Allegiance," and turned the flag around. I happened to have floor seats and was sitting directly in front of the podium about 6 rows from the front, so I couldn't immediately see what was on the flag. However, the boos and gasps began, so I figured it was something bad. But I still couldn't see it. I had to step over the person sitting next to me to see that instead of the stars on the flag, he had placed a large white swastika with little swastikas inside of it. Then a photographer began screaming at him and cursing, and well, you can only imagine the reactions. Some people started clapping, others were pretty much outraged. I was just thinking the entire time about whether the school knew he was going to do that, because if they didn't know, they must have also been freaking out.
I understand the point he was trying to make by showing us that flag, but in all honesty, I found it completely inappropriate. He could have gotten his point across using many other things but he chose that one because he knew he was going to stir up all sorts of emotions from people. Not cool.
That being said, I completely support euthanasia and I applaud Oregon for passing the Death with Dignity Act in 1997. The question is, who will follow?
If your are interested in watching Jack Kevorkian's lecture at NSU on February 5, 2009, click here. The videos with the Q & A are the only ones I would recommend.
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