I’m not quite following the logic here.
Sometimes reading the news makes me feel like a real jerk. This morning I read a story that first made me ache with the rather bitter sadness of it, especially since it took place in Africa and reminded me of the horrid statements made by Ugandan cleric Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje - because condemnation of his sort only helps to further self-destructive behavior by gays who are told that what they are is wrong.
My second reaction was to smack my face into my palm and have a “duh-duh-duuuh!” moment worthy of Carlos Mencia, because I just couldn’t believe the stupidity of what I’d just read. And it made me feel like an a**hole (because I am), but it doesn’t change the fact that I just can’t follow the mind-boggling leaps of logic involved here.
Gay Man Kills Parents ‘To Spare Them Grief’ - 365gay.com
(Cape Town, South Africa) A young gay man, despondent after his relationship with another man soured, shot his parents to death to spare them grief when he committed suicide - but he didn’t die and now he’s on trial for murder.
After killing Glenn and Deborah Harris he shot himself but recovered in hospital.
Following his arrest Grant Harris was sent to a psychiatric facility for an assessment.
Doctors concluded that although Harris deeply depressed he was fit to stand trial.
“He is able to appreciate the wrongfulness of the alleged offences and to act accordingly,” the report said.
Dear Darwin: Why, oh why, have you failed us?
I sincerely doubt that Harris is able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions when he couldn’t appreciate just how arseheaded they were in the first place, depressed or not. How do you decide that it’s an act of compassion to kill your parents when you kill yourself, commit murder, and then fail at suicide? How? Oh, sure, if he’d succeeded in killing himself, his parents wouldn’t be grieving his suicide. They’d be dead. That isn’t a preferable option, you melodramatic little emo-child. You may have spared them grief - although their spirits, if they exist, are probably going to haunt you in fury for the rest of your life - but you’ve now caused the entire extended family grief over not one death, but two. It would have been three if you hadn’t botched it. Congratulations, you’ll live another day to do something else dumb and harmful to someone else.
I know I’m being horribly harsh here in the face of a tragic event; this is just one of my buttons that sets me off. People who behave this way infuriate me. “Boo hoo, my boyfriend dumped me, I’m so sad I’m going to kill my special little self and, so my parents won’t be so despondent without the radiant joy that is me in their lives, I’ll kill them too.” No. Nothing is worth suicide. Nothing.
And nothing gives you the right to decide that your life is so valuable that it’s worth ending another’s.
On a random tangent: a study has shown that workers who remain closeted under fear of being outed and dealing with workplace discrimination or firing have a negative relationship with their coworkers, their employers, and of course with themselves, affecting workplace performance and overall affecting the productivity of the company. I’d like the people in the White House who’d like to veto ENDA to think about that, wonder just how many among their numbers fit the description of frightened, closeted employees, and then think long and hard on what it’s doing to their very own workplace environment in the seat of our nation’s government.
Update on the 1,000 Comments Contest
As I write this, we have 813 comments to this column. Only 187 left to hit 1,000; think you guys can do that by the end of November? If you don’t want the prize of a cameo shot in No Style and getting a 1GB USB thumbdrive, let me know via comments what prize you would want (keep it within my means, please, 451 Press isn’t supplying these prizes, but if you let me know what you want I’ll do what I can).
That’s it from me; I’ll see you guys on Monday with a new comic. Have a good weekend, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
…
On second thought, you might want to avoid anything I would do and just be good, okay?
Final thought for you to ponder over the weekend:
The last phrase you ever want to have come up in conversation with your mother is “gelatinous boobs.”
And no, I’m not going to explain that. Why traumatize you with the explanation when it’s more fun to let you traumatize yourselves trying to figure it out?
~Adri
grant harris, glenn harris, deborah harris, murder-suicide, cape town, south africa
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:40 am
Augh. I HATE people like that. Right now a friend of mine’s all freaked because her friend got dumped by some guy and is now threatening to kill herself.
I shrugged and said, “Let her, if she’s that stupid.”
My friend was horrified. I’ll just attribute my lack of compassion for morons to the two bottles of wine I polished off last night.
As far as “gelatinous boobs”? So, SO much worse has come up in conversations with my mother.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:54 am
That poor family =’( I hope that guy gets sentenced for life. Jerk.
I don’t even know what to imagine at gelatinous boobs o_O
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:53 pm
I generally tend to agree with Anji up there as far as suicide is concerned. If you don’t want to be in the world, stop wasting my air kthxbai.
I’ll take your gelatinous boobs over my mother comparing sizes between her boyfriend and my dad any day of the week.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I would usually be trying to say something along the lines of ’surely the fact that the guy was desperate enough to even consider doing that shows the strength of hatred against gay people in Africa’ but then i read the full articale, and i can’t see why he thought it nessecary to do that if he’d already come out, like four years ago.
And amazingly, I’ve never heard my mum say “gelatinous boobs”. It’s probably the last thing she has left to say, rather than the last thing I’d want her to say. We already left that milestone way on the horizon.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I snickered in class when I read this. I told it to a girl next to me who didn’t find the hilarity in such an article as I did. My gods, I love being mean ^^
I have no remorse for the parents because obviously they didn’t either treated their child in such a way that he had delusions of grandeur when viewed by his parents as their favorite son, or whatever. That or he wasn’t given enough attention and lied to himself which led to the same assumption. In any case it’s done, it’s over, and he’ll probably try and kill himself again. Poor schmuck.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
[...] by Adrien-Luc Sanders If you’re looking for something of substance, skip back a post, because you won’t find it here. I know I’m supposed to be gone for the weekend (and [...]
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:27 am
No, the last phrase you ever want to have come up in conversation with your mother is, “I think ejaculate would make a great skin moisturizer!” Especially when it’s your mother who says it and you’re surrounded by your high school friends. Ten years later, clearly I am still truamatized.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
[...] Sanders-Fisher wrote an interesting post today on Iâm not quite following the logic here.Here’s a quick [...]
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:30 pm
O.o Ugh. I think I’m more scarred by the comment above than by gelatinous boobs.As to the suicide artical, I can see where the boy may have heard how parents grieve over suicide- but that doesn’t mean kill ‘Them’!If he honestly cared about them he’d never kill himself. But I doubt he truely did, selfishness motivates suicide doesn’t it?Where has all the logic gone…~
November 5th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I fail to see how “logic” could ever apply to someone suicidal. They’re so far off the deep end, they’re living in China. It’s tragic, but I find it hard to be surprised or outraged. This probably makes me a bad person.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
In 2005, a self-absorbed douche tried to commit suicide in California by parking his SUV in front of a commuter train. He changed his mind at the last minute. One of my customers (and a woman I consider a friend) lost her brother in that crash. The suicidal loser lived, but 11 people died.
Sometimes, I wish I didn’t abhor violence.