The Riverfront Times joins in the fun with a post on the stories and comments following the apparent suicide of IE Millstone
Am I the only one who finds the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s online comments threads endlessly entertaining, mystifying and downright unfathomable? Am I the only one who, when I’m of a mind to plumb the deepest recesses of the human soul, pulls up the ol’ web browser and types in s-t-l-t-o-d-a-y-d-o-t-c-o-m?
Definitely not. Though I needed a few days away after overload set in from reading the garbage that shows up there.
You’ve got your skeptical “He was 102 and got from where to the Daniel Boone Bridge? … It seems a little strange to think the two things are related without there being something being slightly ‘off’….”
And your brass tacks “God bless him, quite a man to jump off a bridge @ 102,” and “he was a very lucid gentleman even at 102. So, if it was him, it was not due to dementia.”
And, of course, your cynical “Clearly the husband did it.”
But this being stltoday.com, things are gonna get curiouser. Ergo:
“Why should God ‘bless’ him? Isn’t suicide a Commandment Violation? On the otherhand, maybe the suicider asked for ‘forgiveness and absolution’ just before losing consciousness, declaring ‘Jesus is my Savior’ thus securing life ever after in Heaven.”
And lest Final Exit be left out, an afterthought from the same commenter: “…Maybe, just maybe, people like Millstone wouldn’t have to jump off bridges if painless and private assisted suicide were legal (and responsibly regulated)? “
Why is it appropriate to allow such commentary on the death of any human being? It’s fine if the sentiment is out there–, but why would anyone give it a venue?