How Low Can You Go?

Just took a gander at this week’s offering. All that I can say is egads! Leading off with an article about obtaining pentobarbital in TJ to off yourself (“Suicide Tourism,” Cover Story, August 21)? Then trying to smuggle it back to Australia or New Zealand? Let alone back across the San Ysidro (among other points of entry) crossing into America?

Look, I can understand that those in the terminal phase of a horrid disease might want to check out and head for the afterlife as soon as possible. That is why the Hemlock Society is in existence. At least they have the ethics to present the sufferer with all of the options, then leave it up to the sufferer-in-question to make the decision.

Now we have the Aussie version of Jack(ass) Kevorkian (I will never call him a doctor, not after the garbage he pulled in Detroit) telling the terminally ill in Australia and New Zealand to catch the next flight to Lindbergh, hop the bus to TJ, and purchase a drug that is sold as an animal trank?

Way to go, Reader. I never thought that you could go any lower. By doing this, you have not only cheapened the concept of death with dignity, you have also provided the method for any fool with a death jones to obtain one of the most lethal barbiturates ever produced. For a bus ticket to TJ and $45, you too can obtain the means to off yourself, or another person, willingly or otherwise!

Next time, guys, think before you publish such garbage-in-journalistic-clothing. And stop giving dill weeds such as Philip Nitschke free publicity in their quest to be the Dr. Death of Ozz. Jackass Kevorkian was bad enough.

The other articles were enough to keep me from heaving my copy into the nearest Dumpster. Thank God the first one was the shortest. You need to improve your quality control, guys. ’Nuff ’ced!

Robert K. Johnston
Vista

Insurance Tourism

Thanks for your lighthearted yet compassionate coverage about the interest in buying drugs for a peaceful death in Tijuana (“Suicide Tourism,” Cover Story, August 21). As a mental health professional I think of suicide as an impulsive act, usually done violently, almost always alone, and in response to a problem that is likely to have a solution that is not immediately accessible to someone who is depressed. It has been said that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

It is more accurate to think of the seeking of medication in Mexico as Insurance Tourism. That is, the people who are going to TJ are not “suicidal.” They are seeking a peaceful, dignified, certain way out if chronic or terminal illnesses make their suffering unbearable. They know that often at the end of life people lose control; decisions contrary to their wishes are made by others, and they may be forced to live when they’ve lost their personhood and dignity and they would rather die. They do not want to shoot themselves or jump off a building. They should be entitled to be in their own homes, with loved ones, and be able to die with dignity after receiving the best in hospice care, if that still remains their choice.

Fortunately, there are organizations that can provide information and support to those who want to explore a peaceful death, such as the Final Exit Network, ERGO, and Compassion and Choices. There is now an effort in Washington State to pass a law allowing terminally ill patients to get help from their doctor so they can die peacefully. Such a law has been in existence in Oregon since 1998. The Death with Dignity Act has worked well and has made Oregon one of the best places in the country for end-of-life care. Until we have lawful assistance in dying, there will be an increasingly larger underground network composed of those of us who want the assurance that they will be in control when the time comes.

In the Reader article Dr. Nitschke, a highly effective Australian doctor and right-to-die campaigner, asks rhetorically if I would agree that most people would rather take something by mouth to put them to sleep than to die with a plastic bag on their head. Yes, probably he is right, but we do not encourage our members to break the law by buying drugs in Mexico and bringing them back here. Other equally good alternatives are available. We would like to know that people would have a choice about how and when they die and that their death can be a peaceful one. Whatever methods are available to them should be legal and accessible.

Faye Girsh, Ed.D.
Vice President
The Hemlock Society of San Diego

There Goes The Neighborhood

In spite of what police reports have to say about the two July murders of 2007 and 2008 associated with Air Conditioned Lounge, witness accounts place both victims at the bar before they were shot (“Blurt,” August 21).

In May of 1999, when I purchased my home in the neighborhood north of Adams Avenue near Kansas Street, the nights were quiet. I did a great deal of research before choosing to buy here. I spoke with neighbors and visited the neighborhood at various times of day and night to make sure I wasn’t knowingly moving into an area plagued by nocturnal disturbances, barking dogs, and other negative factors that would make life here less than peaceful and quiet.

The trouble north of Adams Avenue began in summer of 2004, shortly after Air Conditioned opened. It didn’t take long to trace the repeated acts of vandalism, sex acts in public (on the corner in front of my house!), public urination, vomiting, littering, and the obligatory hysterical laughter and screaming associated with inexperienced drinkers when they have overimbibed, back to the bar. It seemed as if the regular nocturnal disturbances began overnight. My neighbors and I did our best to work within the system to solve these problems. We attended meetings of the Adams Avenue Business Association and met with the bar owner to try to recover the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of our neighborhood that we had experienced for years previously.

The patrons like to park their cars in the quiet residential neighborhood to the north of the avenue because of the false sense of security it gives them. The difference in the areas to the south and north of Adams Avenue is palpable. On the north side are neat and tidy single-family homes with well-maintained yards. To the south of the avenue, the 4600 block of 30th Street is blighted. The sidewalks are filthy, the street is torn up, and the City ignores repeated requests for repairs and improvements. Drug dealers hang out in the parking lot across from the bar. In broad daylight I have been solicited by heroin dealers. Prostitutes cruise the street.

The unsavory crowd catered to by Air Conditioned has the perception that they are safer parking on the north side of the avenue, both from police patrols looking for drunks driving away at 2:00 a.m. and from the dark, unlit areas to the south where criminals of opportunity await.

At midnight on July 14, 2007, I was awakened by a series of gunshots followed by the screaming of the wounded and dying victims of just such a criminal who followed a couple from the bar to their car parked two doors from my bedroom window. They were both shot after handing over their money. In August, a drunk driver jumped his pickup onto the sidewalk across the street from my house, crashing into a signpost, a tree, and a parked car before fleeing on foot. He was arrested hiding under a staircase in his parents’ house.

Since summer 2004, I rarely am able to sleep through the night between Thursday and Sunday. My work performance has suffered because of frequent exhaustion. Howling drunks stumble down my street at closing time, get into their cars, and drive away drunk, sometimes smashing into cars parked in front and in back. The latest insult has been the shooting in the alley behind the bar. Even though a block away, it goes to show that this place continues to attract the wrong element to our neighborhood.

My neighbors and I are working to establish a Neighborhood Watch chapter. We will continue to document the unacceptable behaviors the patrons of this bar bring with them into our neighborhood. In nearby Normal Heights, neighbors were successful in closing down Kindred Spirits, a bar that brought similar problems to their neighborhood. The owner of Air Conditioned should see the writing on the wall and look for a more suitable location. The large footprint of his business has outstripped the ability of this neighborhood to accommodate it. It’s time for him to move on before a local resident is caught in the crossfire. After all that has happened here since summer 2004, he stands to be held liable civilly the next time someone dies as a result of the crime Air Conditioned attracts. The documentation continues to grow.

Name Withheld by Request
via email

Crash Forgotten

While informative, how could “Life under the Flight Path” (Feature Story, August 21) be written without a single mention of the crash of PSA Flight 182 on September 25, 1978? Up to that point in time, it was the deadliest plane crash in U.S. history, and it doesn’t even warrant a mention in the article? I hope next month there’s a 30th-anniversary article story titled “Death under the Flight Path” that honors the 144 people who died in PSA 182.

Mark Rafferty
via email

Repent!

In regards to the article “Greetings from Tijuana,” August 7 (Cover Story). A number of people have written in with their solutions, and I see the solution is a spiritual one. In the Tanach/Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the solution for Tijuana, the United States, and the whole world, which is besieged with moral cancer, as far as I’m concerned. It says, “If My people who are called by My name will repent from their evil ways and immorality and seek My face, I will heal their land.”

Name Withheld By Request

Wise Choice

Thank you, Reader, for introducing Royal India to us in a review by Naomi Wise on August 21.

I always try restaurants reviewed by Naomi. Upon entering and walking from underneath the arches, we sat closer to the waterfall. It was fabulous. Magnificent ambiance.

I like my food to be flavorful and tried rogan josh, mango soup, and garlic nan at Royal India after reading the article, and it was fantastic. Hats off to Royal India. Tenderness in meat and flavors were fantastic. My friend Angela tried chicken tikka masala, and she said she loved it too.

Julia
via email

Kids Love Indian

Visiting from Chicago we were looking for a good restaurant in San Diego, and an article in the Reader popped up about Royal India (Restaurant Review, August 21), and it was good. We are not so fond of Indian food. After a whole day on the beach in Coronado, we decided to go to Royal India in the Gaslamp of downtown San Diego. Royal India is a beautiful Indian restaurant. The decor is very elegant. It looks like the designer did a fantastic job on it. It’s a designer restaurant.

My kids ordered mango-pineapple curry served with rice. John and I ordered spicy lamb rogan josh and wine garlic curry with chicken.

My kids loved it so much that Julia said Indian food in Chicago does not taste the same. This is really good. This is delicious, Mommy. It’s better than pasta.

Our lamb rogan josh was very flavorful with tender meats, and we had it with onion naan. Chicken garlic naan was fantastic. We never had that dish in any Indian restaurant before.

All I want to say is that my family enjoyed Royal India the most during our stay in San Diego. Next time Royal India will be the reason to visit San Diego. It was really delicious. The only reason I am writing is that I am so happy because my kids finished the whole dish, and in Chicago they do not even want to go to Indian restaurants.

Fantastic experience and it’s amazing — the best meal during our visit to San Diego was at Royal India.

Christina
via email