Aside from a relatively dispassionate-sounding theme song in the movie, "M*A*S*H," suicide is rarely painless for family and friends left behind.Warnings aside, however, there's no denying that suicides -- and murder/suicides -- are dramatically on the rise in the U.S., and our fascination with these incidents captivates much of the mainstream media whenever its members can tear themselves away from daily attacks on Trump.
Personally, I believe that a lot of post-modern suicides involve not only personal mental health, economic or family issues, but also a growing mass realization that we humans, no matter how you deal the cards, add up to just one monster species of rat-bastard, smiling phony smiles all the way, destroying in the name of building and selectively decimating other species in the name of necessity "for public safety." Strong words? Look around.
But, well -- so here's this guy at the Seattle airport, 29 years of age, a baggage handler who never flew a plane in his life. Whatever's going on in Richard Russell's head, he forged ahead to break all the rules that many folks whose lives are encumbered by regulation wish they could crush, and off he goes into the wild blue aboard His Own Private passenger aircraft with nobody aboard to spoil fate's definitive and final bucket list entry.
To the country's amazement, stunning even veteran pilots who may or may not have endured spectacular UFO encounters during their careers, here's this trusted airline employee, a nice and compassionate man by all accounts, executing awe-inspiring air show style maneuvers as he weaves and winds his path toward a one-way destiny. Unsure whether terrorism was the name of this crazy game, a couple of fighter jets soon join the rogue non-pilot, stimulating some folks on the ground to report this as an event in which jets are chasing a UFO (Ground Zero radio show broadcaster Clyde Lewis was tipped off to this sky activity as phone calls about a possible UFO pursuit by jet fighters began trickling in).
So time goes on, and the airport tower and others apparently establish radio contact with Russell, soon to be called "Rich" by one new-found tower buddy who attempts unsuccessfully to talk him down as jet fighter pilots await orders to shoot "Rich" out of the air.
But what must Russell be thinking? His general matter-of-fact way of speaking doesn't betray his own thoughts that, in his own words, he's "got a few screws loose," though he puts the icing on a crazy cake by adding, "I guess I never really knew it till now." Hmm. Maybe cats can drive cars, too.
So, "Rich," now everybody in authority's new friend (until he lands the plane, that is), surely must realize, despite helpful voices poised to assist him with friendly fire of some nature, that there's nothing good awaiting him on terra firma except a thousand psychiatrists and psychologists, law enforcement personnel from agencies whose names some of us can't even pronounce, and the likely prospect of spending the rest of his life rotting in prison or being cocoon-wrapped within the confines of a mental institution.
Maybe for the first time in his life, a choice is clear, and once one has chosen to become daredevil for an instant, violating all the rules society puts in place to keep our leashes short, no other punishing destination for flying like a bird exists except Crash and Burn Land, whether the supposedly rational reside momentarily in Crazytown or Adventure City. About Russell's apparent intention to fly but not land -- who wouldn't admire and share the prospect of merely staying airborne and avoiding the growing pile of human-caused physical and social excrement burgeoning on Earth? One wonders what lessons Russell may have gleaned from watching tarnished comings and goings at the Seattle airport.
Nevertheless, oh my, how very bonkers authorities go when seemingly good, normal people turn on a dime to become something unexpected.
We suggest, get used to it. I know what we are, and there is no cure in sight.
President Trump needs to effect an Executive Order to strike "O" from the alphabet for a while, please, and then maybe we can forget the names, Obama and Omarosa. Regarding the latter -- when I entered the Air Force and later on worked for a government agency, I was required to sign various papers basically requiring a degree of loyalty. So now this Omarosa character, already caught up in lies and memory shape-shifting, shouldn't be prosecuted for recording (!!) and revealing things that might send other folks right to jail and whip up some huge fines? If she doesn't already know the meaning of non-disclosure, maybe she will very soon, should government authorities actually do the right thing.
South Africa meltdown: Seems a tad extreme for the government to kill white farmers so black folk can take the land. Obama, of course, didn't say a word about this carnage when he spoke ever so eloquently, so vacantly, when he was right in the thick of horrible things recently in S.A. The accommodating press, of course, hardly report anything in this country about this ongoing hell.
Antifa unmasked: These cockroaches are fascists of the worst order, traversing mere foul language to actually harm and threaten. Their numbers may be growing among young radicals looking for the wrong reasons to be relevant, but their actions will eventually put them in a very bad place.
