His name was Henry Hamilton, and now he is dead.

[WilliamPitt]

His name was Henry Hamilton, and he owned a small business. He was taking medication to treat anxiety and schizophrenia. He was an ardent listener of the Right-wing noise machine, and lived in terror of Obama winning re-election. Two days after the election, he was found dead next to empty bottles of his pills and a suicide note that read, simply, "Fuck Obama."

Hannity, Rush and the rest didn't kill Mr. Hamilton. But they sure as shit didn't help him, either. Words, like actions, have consequences.

Leonard Pitts | The Sad State of Zealots with Microphones
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-the-sad-state-of-zealots-with-microphones-20121116,0,7918183.story

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. "Do not ask for whom the bell tolls...

It tolls for thee."

[closeupready]

2. Ernest Hemingway, like Mr. Hamilton, lived in Key West.

Interesting choice, as Hemingway wrote, "For Whom The Bell Tolls".

You can be quite scary sometimes, my dear Miss Peggy.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Me? Scary?

Why, thank you.......

My quote is actually from John Donne.


No Man Is An Island

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

John Donne

[Xipe Totec]

3. Next! nt

[WilliamPitt]

4. What does that mean?

[Xipe Totec]

5. It means let the lemmings do what they want to do.

[Xipe Totec]

7. I have a different point of view

First of all, regarding "Under Obama's ACA legislation, he could have gotten the treatment he needed."

Actually, we are under Obama's ACA legislation, and the guy committed suicide with prescription drugs. That does not sound to me like a victim of lack of affordable care.

Secondly, regarding "Wow, it's in bad taste to celebrate a suicide."

I don't celebrate suicide. But I don't don't stand in the way either. I don't condone making martyrs of people who commit suicide.

As for your characterization of me, well, I accept it as your opinion.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. "a different point of view" -- Is that allowed?

[Xipe Totec]

12. Apparently with much frowning and browbeating. nt

[LanternWaste]

10. It's easy to think in that manner

It's quite easy to think in that manner once we depersonalize them, and then pretend to ourselves they lack humanity.

On the flip side, it also means Pogo was correct: we have seen the enemy-- under the cool fluorescent rays of the bathroom mirror.

I suppose at the end of the day, we advertise our character to others far more clearly when we don't really mean to.

[Xipe Totec]

13. I'm not the one that comitted suicide just to make a point. nt

[Care Acutely]

15. And I'm seeing more than a bit of it here, towards the mentally ill, the poor, the powerless

You know, all the people progressives ostensibly claim to be on the side of. It's been rather sickening.

[Zorra]

11. "Words, like actions, have consequences."

They really do.

[Whovian]

14. Sad, but thanks for sharing the piece. k&R

[sakabatou]

16. Right wing shows and radio are poison