I'll Miss You Charles

Actually I've been missing him ever since he took leave of his place on FOX's Special Report panel.

My heart was broken when he told his followers he'd not be back.  The end was near and inevitable. To me his absence created a huge hole in my sources for critical thinking on all things political.

I didn't always agree with him but I could never fault his manner.  I noticed a lot of moist eyes among his colleagues who reminisced about him yesterday after news of his death emerged.

How fitting, in a way, that it was on the first day of summer for one of his passions was baseball and the boys of summer.

There is nothing to be said about him that hasn't already been said.  He was a good man, a kind man and a fair man.  Who can possibly take his place?  At this moment the Right, the so called Conservatives have no one.

What about the Left?  Who have they ever had, really?  They do have someone who is trying to have his voice heard. A Democrat who like Charles finds his party leaving him.  I cannot imagine him embracing the Conservative cause; he's an academic after all.  He is also an attorney of some renown and an avid Constitutionalist. I listen to him whenever he is on air - or try to.  Again, I don't always agree with him but he's also honest and forthright.  Just like Charles.

Who might this be?  Alan Dershowitz. The Left and the Right would do well to listen to what he has to say.

Who knows, maybe FOX will add him to Special Report's panel as a contributor on a regular basis.  They could do far worse.

Who Death Selects

I sit here, the day before my birthday, and wonder why I will be celebrating it and so many people far more accomplished than I wont' be around for their next one.

It has been a tough week for the well known beginning with the suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain followed by the announcement from Charles Krauthammer that he has but weeks, if that, to live.

The causes are different.  Suicide for Spade and Bourdain.  It is heart wrenching wondering what demons within drove them to it.  What angst is going on inside a person's head that would lead them to such a horrendous finality?  More than that, why don't they reach out for help?  Why do they suffer in silence?

After the fact there are always indications to be considered but it's too late. In so many cases it's a waste of a valuable and productive life.  Of course all lives are valuable, each in their own way, but some are more exceptional than others. It's especially puzzling to me now when so much is being said about suicide prevention.  Maybe we just aren't looking far enough.  Maybe we're looking too much for those who appear troubled and not enough at the potential in all of us.  I don't know.

Then there is Charles Krauthammer who has lived an exemplary life while over coming extreme adversity as a young man.  He is bright, oh so bright, and compelling to listen to.  I don't always agree with him but more often than not I do.  It pains me that such a man is about to leave us because of that godawful cancer.  Again, why a man like him?  A man who contributes so much good.  There are so many who contribute nothing more than self-serving chaos yet they seem to go merrily on forever with nothing consequential happening to them until a more normal lifespan has run its course.

Is it the times?  Are we too stressed out that something snaps and we don't even know it?  That seems too simplistic to me, but again, I don't know.  I've thought about what would drive me to end my own life prematurely.  Even with dread disease, I'm not sure I could tie the knot, pull the trigger or even take the pill. Maybe one day I'll find out.  Maybe not.

All I do know is it has been a dreadful week.