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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Kevorkian Stuns Students As He Assails A "Renegade, Rogue, Criminalistic" America Gainesville, FL (AHN) - Dr. Jack Kevorkian surprised a crowd of over 5,000 people at the University of Florida (UF) Tuesday night when he unleashed an attack on a "cowardly and deceitful Supreme Court," assailed the "made up mythology of religion," called American involvement in Iraq a "modified genocide" and declared that "whites can't unite" because "they're wimps." While students expected the controversial "Dr. Death" to speak about euthanasia, Kevorkian only briefly touched on the topics that made him the leading physician-assisted suicide advocate. Instead, Kevorkian explained during his first major speech since being released on parole in June that his new direction in life is to advocate for democracy in America; "as the founders had envisioned it and not as it is today." Kevorkian, 79, spent his time in Gainesville meeting with the UF ACCENT Speakers Bureau and speaking with students at a question-and-answer session ahead of his sold-out speech at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, Tuesday evening. Throughout the day though, Kevorkian's theme remained focused on the often overlooked 9th Amendment and the "terrible crisis" that is gripping the nation. "You think you're free? You've been duped," Kevorkian told students. "You swallowed public propaganda... We have never been a totally free country; despite all the propaganda you've heard [and] the brainwashing you've taken." "I have no respect for the law; none! Because it's corrupt... the law is our enemy," Kevorkian declared. "No law can create a crime. Sounds strange to you? Ask a person what's a crime? they'll go in the dictionary and open it up, and they'll all say 'it's an illegal act.' Rosa Parks did an illegal act, was that a crime? Neither was mine... law is an enemy to rights" and "disobeying the law is not a crime - it's just disobeying the law." "It just boggles the mind that we're forced to do things we don't want to do because the law will put is in jail... I'm sure a lot of you don't like wearing seatbelts, I'm sure of that. If they're out to protect us then why don't they make mountain climbing against the law... or bungee jumping?" Kevorkian told the crowd that a person should be able to "carry a kilogram of cocaine in your pocket as long as you don't try to sell it or abuse it in some way; in your home you can smoke anything you want. You can have any rifle you want. You should be able to carry a rifle or an uzi down the street, as long as you don't threaten anybody." Kevorkian praised the founding fathers, including James Madison, who was the chief architect of the 9th Amendment to the constitution while he served in the first session of Congress. "You don't realize the power you have in the 9th Amendment... No one can argue with the 9th Amendment, it's plain language. Only a tyrant says it's not plain... some professors say it's murky. Be honest; tell them 'you're wrong.'" The 9th Amendment holds that "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." This, according to Kevorkian, is the strongest defense the American people have to protect their natural rights from a corrupt government. But, "that's the trouble with the tyrant, he owns the legislative branch; owns the laws. Anything he wants he just makes a law, now he's got your control," Kevorkian said. "The tyrant knows what he's doing. He keeps you in the dark. He keeps you dumbed down with silly things to keep your mind off of what's important... The tyrant knows psychology." America is "no different than Nazi Germany; they were aggressive too, [but] they were more honest about it. See, unfortunately for the Nazis, there was another power that could counteract them, the United States. Who can counteract us? America is like a bull in a china shop. There is no way to fight them. They can do what they want, lie, cheat and steal - and they do." "You think Iraq is a war? It's not a war, it's a modified genocide. You could solve the whole problem in the Middle East with one act; withdraw entirely everything from the Middle East... Nobody loves armed missionaries. Every soldier we have around the world is an armed missionary. And you praise him? No you don't praise him, damn him." "You have a renegade, rogue, criminalistic country. Why are you hated in the rest of the world? Why? Because they know what you are, but you don't know, because you're living well," Kevorkian said. "We're a fascist country you know... I'm not proud to be an American; I'm not proud to be a genocidal aggressor. America is wrong," Kevorkian declared. "We are a criminal country... we have a criminal group in Washington, [a] bunch of criminal dictators." When you vote for president, "you're only electing an idiot on puppet strings," including the "court-appointed idiot we call president" now, he said. Kevorkian added that the 2000 election was a "sham" and that "You're going to vote for another corrupt man soon, or a woman." "I have one way to send a message that is nonviolent; everyone should refuse to vote - everybody," Kevorkian told students to a mixed chorus of applause and boos. Kevorkian's tirade didn't end at just the White House. "[i] know that the 'Supreme Crooks' are liars and that they are negligent in their duty" to uphold the U.S. constitution, he explained. Kevorkian said the Supreme Court is "corrupt right to the core" and added that "now we're opening up a 'Spanish inquisition.'" Later, Kevorkian turned his attention to race and said plainly; "The whites don't unite." "The whites, especially the old ones, they have petrified brains; their brainwashing is complete," Kevorkian explained. "You've got an Irishman, a German, a Greek, a Frenchman and they don't unite... they're wimps... There's no power in the unification of the whites. Who has the power in this country? Black people." "Blacks can unite," Kevorkian explained. "Because of their common color" and "because they know what slavery is... Had they known about the 9th Amendment, history would have been different... The power of the blacks will lead you to act on the 9th Amendment." The comments brought a mixed reaction from the packed crowd at UF. Some students laughed at Kevorkian, while others timidly applauded the offbeat statement. "Some of his views are a little bit 'out there.' He's extremely opinionated on some stuff," UF undergraduate student Brandon Labiner told AHN in an interview after the speech Tuesday evening. "I really agreed with the fact that politicians are kinda corrupt nowadays and that we should really, obviously pull all of the troops out of the Middle East." As for Kevorkian's "really out there topics about how we can all carry cocaine and rifles on the street and how black people control the world; I disagreed on that," Labiner added. Aside from what some students called a "rambling tirade on law," Kevorkian did take some time to address the issue that most had come to hear; physician-assisted suicide. Kevorkian said he disagreed with an Oregon law that mandated a patient must take the suicidal medicine himself. Kevorkian has long maintained that suicide must be treated as a medical procedure, with the direct intervention of a physician, who will make sure there is an immediate and painless death. "It's got to be a medical service. That's the only way to control it... It must be a medical service, so the obstacle is the [American Medical Association]. All you have to do is declare it to be a medical service, legitimately, and they'll take care of all the rest of it, just like they do with every medical procedure. You can't dictate medical procedures by law; they change all the time; research changes." "My aim was not to cause death, that's crazy. My aim was to end suffering." Kevorkian cited modern examples of physician-assisted suicides, including the medically-involved deaths of author Mark Twain, psychologist Sigmund Freud and British King George V. Yet from there, Kevorkian digressed into an attack on Catholic doctors, the Hippocratic oath and religion. Kevorkian said that the Hippocratic oath "wasn't discussed in medical school, and our class never took the oath. It isn't a medical oath; you pledge allegiance to all the gods and goddess, the pagan gods and goddesses of Greeks - what sense is that today?" He added that the Hippocratic oath was the byproduct of a "secret, small Pythagorean sect" that was the only group to oppose the ancient tradition of a physician helping a terminally ill patient end his life. "The only oath we have, the only ethics we have in medicine are religious ethics" and "religion is nothing more than a made-up mythology [and] the basis of religion is fear." "A doctor limited by dogma isn't a real physician; he should have been a priest," Kevorkian said. "They think life's sacred... I don't feel sacred, frankly. I've got a life and I don't feel sacred." After the speech, the reaction from students remained mixed. "I think was a bit extreme in equating us to Nazi Germany; that may have been a bit far," UF undergraduate student Kristen Perry said. "He's very knowledgeable about everything... [but] I certainly wouldn't go as far as he did." "I don't agree with the Iraq war and I haven't ever, but I also don't think that it's necessarily a modified genocide," UF undergraduate student Katie LeBlanc added. Overall, students felt Kevorkian should have spent more time talking about physician-assisted suicide, the issue that brought him to trial five times in the 1990's and finally led to his conviction in 1999. "It's good to hear his point of view," Perry said. "I don't know if i would go so far as to say that euthanasia should be legalized, but I think if it is, he's definitely right about how we should go about doing it." Despite the disappointment(physician assisted suicide as a sole topic would have been boring compared to all of this) everyone AHN interviewed after the speech was firm in their belief that bringing Kevorkian to speak at UF was the right thing to do. Steven Blank, Chairman of the UF ACCENT Speakers Bureau said the show was a "resounding success." "Our job is to bring the kind of prominent and controversial speakers to the university that will enlighten, engage and entertain the student body," Blank said. "Just a day before he was scheduled to speak, I overheard two women talking about Kevorkian as they made photocopies of their wills at Kinkos - so I know bringing him here was a good idea and all the feedback we've received after the event just confirms it." "The debate about who has the right to make end-of-life decisions was something we needed to bring to this school, and I'm proud Dr. Kevorkian chose the University of Florida as his first stop in what I'm sure will be a long and thought-provoking campaign." Another issue ahead of the speech was protests. While local activist groups like the UF on-campus branch of the Pro Life Alliance organization claimed almost a hundred demonstrators would show up, AHN found a meager handful of bused-in retirees and high school students on hand for the event. A graphic banner equating abortion to physician-assisted suicide was silently put up while bland signs saying "DEATH isn't welcome here" were handed out to a handful of demonstrators who braved 40-degree weather to get their message out. Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo, was also scheduled to make an appearance amid the tight security the university arranged for the event. However, despite starting a petition to persuade UF to rescind its offer to Kevorkian and speaking out against the speech to several pro-life groups, Schindler was an inexplicable no-show on Tuesday. Local and university police were on hand, but the protesters gathered without even a chant and went largely unnoticed by a sold-out crowd that began lining up hours before the event. In the end, it was Kevorkian's radical comments on race, religion and the state of the Union that became the bombshell.
Poster Comment: I hope this isn't a repost.
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
(Edited)
Assisted suicide is NOT euthanasia. great speech by Dr. K.
A free man owns his own labor
It's news to me - thanks.
Kervorkian for President ! (His speech lacked one thing, allegations that bankers run everything). I don't agree that there's no God. Sometimes intellectuals outsmart themselves. That's their (personal) problem and is actually irrelevant when no one is allowed or empowered to impose their religious system upon anyone else. Take down the banks and the restoration of liberty will be a breeze !
"April 15th is really April FOOL'S DAY."
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