Schizophrenia Unbound

Greetings Dear Readers,

Apparently there is not an end to the madness that grips our culture. We embrace auto racing in a national frenzy whilst warring over the price of oil and the environmental effects of exhaust. We insist on health care and food for everyone when we are quickly becoming the most obese nation on the planet, eating more than we need and promising a health crisis to the ascending generation.

This morning, however, a contradiction of values became so apparent that it nearly drove me over the edge. Reported on our local news this morning is a story of a man convicted for attempting to dig up and have sex with a corpse. I get that this is heinous. I understand that it is gross. It is wrong. I have no problem with that this is a criminal act. What does bother me is the specific crime for which he was convicted.

There were vandalism and trespassing crimes that make sense to me. It should be a crime to do anything with a corpse. What is ringing my “wait a minute” bell is that he was convicted of a third degree sexual assault. This means that a dead, embalmed, and buried body has rights.

One of the tests for human rights is viability. I have yet to meet a viable corpse. Until the Zombie Apocalypse comes I am just fine with denying human rights to dead people. Protect corpses. Treat them with respect and honor but please do not put us on a path of giving them rights.

We know that in some places they get to vote. Some people still collect social security and pick up their narcotic prescriptions long after they are post-human. The problems associated with heading down this slippery slope are obvious and serious. I will try to enumerate them in a logical manner

First and foremost on the post-human end of things is the obvious contradiction that the dead are no longer human. Human remains, post human, or former human works for me but not a human with rights. When we get to the Zombie Apocalypse, if there is record of them having rights of any kind they will demand the vote and we will end up with an undead president. NOT GOOD.

Second and just a crazy is the fact that the undead seem to have little or no regard for the living. They are not a protected species and our literature proves that any time they show up in numbers we tend to hunt them. It is a real problem for me that we are setting president to protect a human predator. You see, they see us as food. I am sure some of you out there are thinking that we should then make them a protected species. Sure let’s make human eating zombies have full rights alongside their favorite snack food. BAD IDEA

But the thing that scares me most. The thing that assures me that as a nation we have turned off of Sanity Street and are heading full speed down the Psychopathic Parkway is that we will defend the human rights of someone whose life is over and rip babies from the womb whose life is just beginning.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn