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

[celticess.livejournal.com]

For me it's sad because of those I've lost in my family from various things. Most of those things being cancer. I wont read the news release. I've seen some blurbs. Such as I caught part of the nopity post on it. I saw the bit about coma and stopped reading. My daughter fell into a coma before she died. I can tell you however if he was in a coma he likely went peacefully.

It's also sad in the sense he fought for several causes.

Stem cells are related to blast cells which in turn is related to my daughters tumour btw. Her primary tumour shortly before her death we signed papers for to donate for research. Not for research into her type of cancer. But into a cure and better treatments for kidney disease. Her tumour was a blastoma yet she as an individual showed resistance to damage that chemo does to kidneys. So anyways for me I personally feel something as to the research aspects of it. Because my daughter more than once was involved in research herself before her own death.

I'm hoping the hype dies down and they give his poor family time to grieve. They don't need press bothering them... they probably do need time to come out of the numb stage.

Btw despite the "superman" comments I don't think of that when I think of him. I think of him as an advocate and activist in the disability and health line of things.

[conuly]

I'm hoping the hype dies down and they give his poor family time to grieve. They don't need press bothering them... they probably do need time to come out of the numb stage.

God, I hope so too. People are so stupid about things sometimes, though.