License to Kill
Current mood: 
contemplative
Category: Life
I’m disturbed by the rising number of men and women who kill their children before – and sometimes not – killing themselves. With so many people I know clamoring for kids of their own it sickens and angers me that some parents feel they have the right to take their children’s lives. To me, it is the ultimate act of great selfishness.
Whether it’s the newborn tossed in a dumpster or a pre-teen shot in bed, it is often done to spite an estranged or ex spouse.
I am furious when I hear of some parent slaughtering their babies as if they are judge and jury.
There’s also a disturbing trend nobody talks about.
The people who kill their pets.
A friend of mine recently died and in my last conversation with her she told me she had put in her will that her five healthy, happy, loving cats were to be euthanized upon her death.
I loved my friend but I was outraged, and told her so.
We argued for about half an hour on the subject but she was an old lady and firm in her beliefs.
“Nobody will take care of them the way I do,” she said. “Nobody.”
This is very true. Nobody cares for our pets the way we do, but do we have the right to kill them?
A woman of means, I suggested she place in her will that the animals were to be found loving, adoptive families. She could even leave money for their upkeep.
She refused.
Again, I call it selfish.
If something happened to me, my first concern would be for my animals but I already have in place two friends willing to step up and take them in as their own.
It’s something that horrifies me, that anybody who professes to love a life, human or animal, can snuff it out.
I argued with my friend and was devastated when she passed and her son, who inherited her estate instructed the housekeeper to feed the cats until the food ran out.
“Once the food is gone, they die,” he said.
The housekeeper and I smuggled extra food in the house and after three weeks, he figured out we were disobeying his instructions. He called the vet, who, though reluctant to kill five perfectly wonderful animals, had no choice since he’d been given his own instructions and payment ahead of time.
I will forever remember the pitiful wails of those beautiful creatures as they were driven from the only home they’ve known.
I listened to a psychologist on the radio yesterday describing the scene that greeted a woman who went to pick up her young son and daughter when her ex husband failed to return them after a scheduled visit.
She described a scene of such brutality that the investigating officers required therapy afterward, let alone the woman who birthed those babies and was forced by the courts to let her wacko ex have access to them.
In a suicide note, the father said “Nobody can look after these kids like I can.”
What about their mom?
I don’t believe his words. I believe he did this to hurt her.
But again, do any of us have the right?
I say at a time when our values seem at an all-time low, giving ourselves a license to kill reaches a whole ‘nother level of low.
What do you think?
Aloha oe,
