moebergeron.com

Our Love Affair with Death

August 22, 2008

According to the Feds there were over 41,000 traffic deaths in the year 2007. I haven't a clue as to how many additional people were seriously or lightly injured. If we then factor in the affected families and the loved ones who lives will be forever changed we will have to conclude that our priorities are really screwed up. With all of the deaths and suffering going on you would think that the American people would humble themselves and repent of their much loved vices but there is hardly a whisper decrying the resulting DEATHS.

What follows is a sampling of things I gleaned off of the Net that address some of our favorite ways of dying and DEATH.

During recent years drug products are flashed before the American public day after day. That's why I found the following to be of interest.

When it comes to deaths caused by legal drugs NaturalNews.com (http://www.naturalnews.com/021635.html) reported the following:

Poisoning from prescription drugs has risen to become the second-largest cause of unintentional deaths in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers found that deaths from prescription drugs rose from 4.4 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 7.1 per 100,000 in 2004.

This increase represents a jump from 11,000 people to almost 20,000 in the span of five years.

Among the 20,000 that died, more than 8,500 – double the number from 1999 -- were from "other and unspecified drugs."

Psychotherapeutic drugs, like antidepressants and sedatives, nearly doubled from 671 deaths to 1,300."

Then if we figure in the number of people who died as a result of illegal drug usage the numbers just keep on adding up. There seems to be no end to our love affair with death. I'm left wondering how can this be?

Here's more info about our love affair with death. The following is attributed to:

Leonard J. Paulozzi, M.D., M.P.H.,
Medical Epidemiologist
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

on
Trends in Unintentional Drug Poisoning Deaths

before
House Energy and Commerce
Oversight and Investigations
United States House of Representatives

as reported to the US Dept. of Health & Human Service in 2007.
(http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2007/10/t20071024a.html)

Trends in Mortality Rates: 1999-2004

Beginning with 1999 data, a new coding protocol was introduced that combined heroin, prescription opioids, and cocaine into one category called “narcotics,” and combined “other” and unspecified drugs into another category. Sedatives and other psychotherapeutic drugs continued to be tracked separately. Increases in death from these categories of drugs, as seen during the 1990s, continued from 1999 through 2004. By 2004, at least 20,000 unintentional drug poisoning deaths occurred annually in the United States. By comparison, just over 17,000 homicides occurred that year.

The new coding protocol also allowed researchers to determine specifically which drugs were involved in these deaths by allowing disaggregation of the “narcotics” and “other/unspecified” categories into their 3 largest components: opioid analgesics, cocaine, and heroin. Opioid analgesics include derivatives from opium, such as oxycodone or hydrocodone, as well as synthetic drugs with similar action, such as methadone. Analysis of these data, published last year, showed that the slow increase in cocaine-related mortality seen earlier continued after 1999, while the number of deaths involving heroin stabilized. In contrast, the number of deaths involving prescription opioid analgesics increased from roughly 2,900 in 1999 to 7,500 in 2004, an increase of 160% in just 5 years.[1] By 2004, opioid painkiller deaths numbered more than the total of deaths involving heroin and cocaine. For the first time, it became apparent that prescribed controlled substances were driving the upward trend in drug poisoning mortality.

What about deaths due to our love for alcohol? Well these figures are just as impressive. We gleaned the following from (http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/alcoholdrug/index.htm).

Alcohol is used by more young people in the United States than tobacco or illicit drugs.1 Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with approximately 75,000 deaths per year.2 Alcohol is a factor in approximately 41% of all deaths from motor vehicle crashes.3 Among youth, the use of alcohol and other drugs has also been linked to unintentional injuries, physical fights, academic and occupational problems, and illegal behavior.

All of the above figures would lead us to believe that the American people are serious about death and the means of death. I'm convinced we have our priorities all screwed up. Why do you think I would say such a thing? Well it is simply because when one American soldier gives his life in Iraq the American press rightfully brings it to our attention. But what about all of these other roads to death? Why are there no alarm bells ringing when an American dies for a stupid reason such as reckless driving? Why do we not decry the stupid and senseless lifestyles that leade to death when they are glamorized on our media? Why is there no outcry over the sale of alcohol to alcoholics? The alarm raised over the sale of tobacco is laughable. The only winner is the tax collector!

I believe there is also a very real reason these things are allowed to continue to happen. There is no outcry over the abuse of booze, drugs, sex and reckless drivers because nowadays there is no shame attached to such behavior. Shame became unpopular when booze, drugs and just about all wrongdoing became the product of sick people and not sinners. The only winners are the pushers who are making a bundle on sin. The feds and states refuse to get real when vices fill their treasuries. That's why there's this big push on throughout our country to legalize gambling.

Interesting enough the anti-war people claim that the loss of even one soldier in Iraq is the result of an immoral war being waged by immoral people in Washington. If the voices of the anti-war folks were as loud about the immoral wrongdoing that plagues our nation and the western world I might give them a serious listening. Their silence on these other death issues tells me one big thing; they pretend to be moralists but moralists they are not! I hope I'm wrong but they appear to be using American deaths in Iraq to gain political advantage. A great hero of mine said it this way;

"You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil?

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good,

and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for

every careless word they speak, for by your words you will

be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Matthew's Gospel 12:34-37

In conclusion I must state that our nation is in a love affair with death but death and the love of death is global. I do not expect things to change. Death is the product of man's rebellion against his Creator. Death validates the truths contained in God's Word, the Bible. Man is a murderous beast racing towards his own fiery judgment and no one seems to care.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly

are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes

gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree

bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot

bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does

not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will

recognize them by their fruits."

Matthew's Gospel 7:15-20

Enough said! Just for the record I hold to an isolationist view with regards to foreign wars and the treaties that entangle. That's not to say I would not be armed to the teeth to protect my family and fellow citizens from the petty powers of this world.