Opinion

Editor's Notebook

We Spend Too Much Time
Judging Someone Else's Pain

PHIL JACOBS MANAGING EDITOR

Far be it for me to judge
what is going on in the Dr.
Jack Kevorkian situation. I
think, though, that no one
should judge the terminally
ill people who choose the
doctor's assistance.
Too many times men and

01 1 1 1 1 1 '

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still intact. This is what is
so difficult to deal with.
Trapped inside a failing
body, a body that could not
control its own functions,
was a thinking, intelligent
human being.
She remembered her

their beds, they know first-
hand what it's like to ques-
tion life and to weigh
quantity versus quality.
These are real heroes, who,
if given the choice, wouldn't
ask for these chances to
prove it.

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,*.r. "Arii,

Artwork from Newsday by Anthony D'Adamo. Copyright. 1990. Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

women with titles, some po-
litical, some professional,
think they are qualified to
pass judgment on issues
they have never really felt,
> nor experienced.
Talk about assisted sui-
cide. How many of us really
know what it's like to feel
the pain of cancer in your in-
ternal organs, your skeletal
system, your brain? What is
it like to have a headache so
searing that only a narcotic
can numb the pain? What is
it like?
For me, the experience
> was closer than I wanted it
) to be. In the mid-1980s, both
my mother and father died
within a year of each other.
My mother suffered for most
of her adult life with multi-
ple sclerosis. First it at-
tacked her ability to walk.
She went from a cane to a
quad cane to a walker to a
wheelchair. She continued
working her job in a pathol-
ogist's office until the MS at-
tacked her hands and her
arms.
In her spare time, my
mother was a serious oil-
paint artist. By her 65th
year, she could no longer
walk, work, paint. Nor could
she hold her grandchild in
her arms. But her mind was

functional time in life, and
that's why the pain was so
difficult to endure. In the
privacy of night, when the
effects of truth sear like a
lightning rod, she'd tell my
father, "I want to die. Why
won't I die?"
There were times that I

For the
terminally in,
why is there a
judge?

wanted her to die. How self-
ish, how guilty I still feel. I
don't care for pity; she
didn't. When people heard
of my mother's death, they
told me what a blessing it
probably was.
There's no blessing here.
Just a very rough go at it.
They pay professional ath-
letes millions of dollars if
they can hit a ball three
times out of 10 safely. We
call these people heroes. But
the care givers who change
dressings, sometimes dia-
pers on adults, who lift loved
ones in and out of wheel-
chairs, who turn them in

Suicide is a sin, according
to Halachah. But for a ter-
minally ill person in pain,
why must there be a judge?
It is not necessarily a gun to
the head.
What it is, instead, as my
father said three weeks be-
fore his death from cancer,
to the doctor and to his fam-
ily: no tubes, no respirators.
Simply stated from his can-
cer-ridden voice, "No hero-
ics."
By following his wishes,
did we allow him to commit
suicide? We think not. He
died on his terms: in his
house, with his family talk-
ing to him and holding him
while he took his last
breath.
My mother, on the other
hand, died in her hospital
room at 6 a.m. with the
tubes, the needles, the res-
pirator and the monitors.
We were called on the phone
by a nurse we didn't know.
We weren't there. She was
alone. Our family learned
from this.
So don't judge from what
you read in the newspaper
or on television. Try to un-
derstand that a victim's
pain, a family's pain, are
personal and private.
It's not up to judgment. ❑

A Most Worthy Cause,
(No Bull)

GARY ROSENBLATT EDITOR
Dear Friend,
I am writing
on behalf of a
worthy Jewish
institution that
has fallen on
s.,
difficult eco-
nomic times.
. i ' The Bold Ultra-
Lenient Liberals (BULL) is a
group dedicated to carrying
out the traditional spirit of
our proud Jewish heritage.
Namely, to personify the
words of the Prophets of old
in promoting justice, right-
eousness and good deeds
(rather than carrying out the
many demanding command-
ments).
It is in this spirit, that I,
a long-time leader of BULL,
call upon our caring friends
to ask for generous financial
support for several vital
groups that are not receiving
sufficient attention in the
Jewish community and have
been falsely maligned in the
biased press. These groups
include the Jewish Friends of
Hamas, American Jewish Ad-
vocates of the Branch David-
ians (Waco, Texas, chapter),
the Jewish Supporters of Is-
lamic Fundamentalists (Jer-
sey City chapter)..We are
proud that these groups have
grown in membership in re-
cent months as more Jews
recognize their responsibili-
ty to support every Ultra-Lib-
erals cause that presents
itself to them in a ...
BACKSPACE. MOVE
CURSOR. DELETE. START
OVER.
. Dear Friend,
When_was the last time
you felt guilty about the pain
and suffering of the Pales-
tinian deportees, freezing and
lonely (except for TV crews
and journalists from all over
the world) in a no-man's land
in southern Lebanon?
If their plight is of no con-
cern to you, perhaps you are
indeed more callous than
even I had thought. I, of
course, am the chairman of
BULL, which I am certain
you are aware of because you
were kind enough to con-
tribute to our Justice For
Meir Kahane's Murderer
Fund during our recent cam-
paign drive.
I write to you now because
there is another cause that
calls out for action. Of course
I refer to the Hamas 400, or
is it 300? But that is not im-
portant. What is critical is
that you feel a tug of sympa-
thy for these poor men who
were deported from Israel
simply because they have
been devoting all of their en-
ergy to plotting to destroy the

State of Israel and eradi-
cate all Jews.
And now, they must suf-
fer in exile for up to two
years, spending their time
plotting future terrorist
acts and doing press inter-
views.
We need to raise their
spirits by raising funds for
the American Jewish
Friends of Deep-Six the De-
portations, a non-profit
agency of ...
BACKSPACE. MOVE
CURSOR. DELETE.
START OVER.
Dear Friend,
We Jews have been a
caring people, taking up
the cause of the downtrod-
den ever since the world's
first social justice cause —
the Jewish Friends of Cain
— was founded in the year
2 B.E. (Before Everything).
No doubt your ancestors
were proud members of
such vital groups as Jewish
Advocates of The Multi-
Plagued Pharaoh, Jews
Against Stamping Out
Haman and Jews Not
Burned Up About the In-
quisition.
But now it is 1993 and
there are new causes to
continue that proud tradi-
tion of helping everyone
else before we help our-
selves. It is in that vein
that I, the chairman of
BULL, whose record is too
illustrious to mention here,
write to you about the
plight of a poor, blind man,
virtually alone in a foreign
land, whose only "crime" is
to urge his followers to car-
ry out his holy command.
Yes, I speak of Sheikh
Omar Abdel Rahman of Jer-
sey City (lately), who ex-
presses his theology in the
most carefully chosen lan-
guage. "Hit hard," he told his
followers, "and kill the ene-
mies of God in every spot to
rid it of the descendants of
apes and pigs fed at the ta-
bles of Zionism, communism
and imperialism." (That
quote is for real.)
Sheikh Omar, or as we af-
fectionately refer to him,
Ramblin' Rahman, was re-
cently honored by our orga-
nization on two occasions:
Brotherhood Week and Best
Syntax of the Year.
Now we feel the need to
launch a legal aid fund for
him as ...
BACKSPACE. MOVE
CURSOR. DELETE. START
OVER.
Dear Friend,
come right to the point.
You know the important
NO BULL page 10

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