Christopher Reeve is dead.

[conuly]

This has lead to a number of posts on my friends page, causing me to ask two questions:

1. Why is it "so sad" that he died? I mean, yes, it's sad for the people who knew and loved him, but since most of you do *not* fall into that category, why do you actually care? I'm honestly curious.
2. In some communities, his death is leading to people saying that Bush is evil because, of course, Christopher Reeve might've been walking (and possibly still alive) if Bush had allowed more stem cell research.

A. I don't think stem cell research would've led to any cures so early.
B. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I'm not in a wheelchair or anything, so I might be mistaken... but instead of waiting on the cureall of stem cells, wouldn't it be more effective to, um, have more buildings be accessible? And public transportation (I know that the NYC trains are essentially non-accessible)? And more strictly enforce handicapped parking laws? You know, that sort of thing? I mean, homes are still being built that aren't accessible, aren't they? That seems to be the impression of family friend Mr. Steve, who had a nice lovely debate about the cost of building accessible homes with my mom last time he visited, and how that's why people don't build homes to be accessible. My grandmother's fairly new home has a step in front of it, a completely pointless accoutrement. That's not accessible, right?

Seriously, for Bush to turn around on stem cell research, this would not come close to redeeming him in my eyes. That's nice, but I don't think it's particularily helpful to anybody living right now.

Edit: I think I've identified what's annoying me! It's what several people have said: he deserved to walk again. As one person put it "He might have gotten to walk again. The man deserved it. He worked SO damn hard." I don't know. Mihi, that's a lot like saying "some people don't deserve it. They just didn't work hard enough!"

I'm definitely going to bed. I'm taking this all way too seriously. If I sleep, I'll feel better, and I'll stop reading things wrong like that. Djusk' a.

Comments

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

As one person put it "He might have gotten to walk again. The man deserved it. He worked SO damn hard." I don't know. Mihi, that's a lot like saying "some people don't deserve it. They just didn't work hard enough!"

I agree on that completely. Iv'e never really understood what qulaifies a person to 'deserve' something. I've been told quite often I 'deserve' to be happy, and to have things better than I do. But why? What makes *me* so much more special than other people? Bah.

[conuly]

Well, everybody deserves to be happy. Or at least, to have a chance to be happy. That's in the constitution, about the "pursuit of happiness". Happiness is not guaranteed, but you have the right to pursue it, hunt it and kill it and hang it on your wall.

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everyone deserves to be happy, but you don't see people just going up to random people and saying "You deserve to be happy!" I've had people I've never even met come up to me and tell me I deserve better, and that I deserve to be happy/normal again/whatever else, and I've never been comfortable with the statement.