Death in the media

I'm not feeling overly morbid or anything -- it may just be that the clouds and the fog and the cold are starting to get to me...

I know I'm not the first person to ever notice this, but I just wanted to rant on something that bothers me about the media's coverage of that last, significant event of everyone's life: the big D.

Now I'm not sure if this stems from some announcer on TSN croaking and the way it was dealt with, or what, but I've always kind of been repulsed by the way that news stories differentiate between someone dying of 'natural' causes and when someone croaks in an accident or homicide or something...

When someone kicks it from cancer or heart disease or severe herpes, anchors or reporters typically use a kind of condescending tone, like the person who died has ultimately failed:

"John was a hell of a jockey, but his riding days were cut short when he was diagnosed with an incurable hemorrhoid in 1998. He fought long and hard, but finally succombed to the burgeoning blood vessel at the age of 67. He leaves behind a wife, several mistresses, eighteen kids and a worn-out donut cushion."

It's always implicitly stated (by the healthy anchor or writer) that, if John fought harder, he'd still be here, riding women and laying wth horses.

On the other side, when someone is blown up in an airplane or goes off a bridge in a car, they are kind of made out to be heroes:

"Steve died courageously as the bus went over the cliff and into the sewage lagoon. Crews fished him out of the feces and a funeral will be held Saturday. Mourners are reminded to bring nose-plugs."

Steve went 'before his time'. Or before his body or mind turned on him. But is Steve still courageous when he's crapping himself with dementia?

Someone dying from cancer, I think, is leaving 'before their time' too. Or heart disease. I don't see the difference between being diagnosed with incurable cancer and being blown up in an aircraft. Neither person wants either of those things. They don't actively choose them... but the treatment of each ways are so different that it bothers me.

Everyone dies eventually. Everyone fails. Every body will give out at some point. It's not a failure. It's inevitable. It's natural. It's supposed to happen.

On a sidenote, when I go, I want this to be my epitaph:

Herb Mathisen

1983-20??

"Herb was a successful man,

but his heart was a complete failure."