RIP Lovelle Svart

A local story has me thinking about compassion…and where the heck our humanity has gone. It's been a while since I read anything that packed such a punch. It was an incredible piece in the Oregonian on Sunday about Lovelle Svart, who had been documenting her battle with terminal lung cancer, ending with her decision to take advantage of Oregon's Death with Dignity law. You can read about her here. I dare anyone with a heart to read this story, and not feel touched by it. Oregon is the ONLY state where people can ask their doctors for life ending medication. It is not an easy process. It involves multiple steps, coordinated with your doctor, and is not taken lightly. Yet there were 'letters to the editor' beginning on Monday morning, decrying the paper's decision to run such a story on the front pages of the paper, GASP! The ABOMINATION of it all. GLORIFYING SUICIDE! Hardly. One person even pointed out that we know the law exists, we don't need to read about it like this, it should be kept quiet. Oregonians are the lucky ones. They have the law. No one else does. And people DO keep it quiet in 49 states because it is ILLEGAL to put yourself out of your misery in a humane way.

Then it got me thinking that even though we celebrate Freedom of Speech, last time I looked, people want to SPEAK but they don't want to listen, share, empathize, FEEL what someone else does. It's not only the right to die issue, it's any 'moral' issue (aren't they all?) like abortion/right to life, gay marriage, public health and education, ANYTHING that involves people and the decisions they have to make about their lives. Has the world gone crazy and no one can put themselves in another person's shoes for just a minute? Is it touching too much of a nerve for someone who sees things in black and white, only right and wrong, with no shades of gray, to put a name and a face and a story with the issue? Why is it that if my way isn't your way, then it must be wrong? Just because a law allows a person to do something you may not agree with doesn't mean YOU have to do it yourself. I can tell stories about people I know that should make any human being agree that a person with a terminal illness should have the right to die with dignity, that women of childbearing age have a right to contraception, and to make decisions about their health and welfare, that gay couples should have equal rights, including adopting children, that all children should to educated and protected. But there are too many simple answers these days. It's right, it's wrong. Lovelle was brave enough to put her name and face on this particular issue. Good for her. Now if only people could really hear what she said.