Jeremy C Kester

It is disappointing. That is the only word I can use to describe the way I feel about humanity at times: disappointed. I know that we can do better, and often I wish that we would. Instead, we get locked into this tit-for-tat cycle of growing retribution that you can never go back far enough to truly understand who started it or why. The moment that brought up the feeling was a reaction I saw somebody make in regards to the recent passing of Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh was a popular and controversial conservative radio host, in fact quite possibly the de-facto conservative radio host, and has been battling stage IV cancer for the last year prior to his death.

In short, the emotional reaction that the person I saw online showed was joy. Joy that Rush, an evil entity in their eyes, was dead.

Wishing the suffering of anyone, even someone who we do not like, is immoral and lacking virtue. Enjoying the news of someone’s death is the same. It’s tactless and shameful. And we can do better.

We can do better.

No matter what Rush, or whomever this might apply, had done in their lives, no matter the words they’ve spoken, the insults they’ve offered, or whatever behavior that was at best unsavory, to sink to the same level, to go low in our own behavior is not the right way to handle it.

We should remember that no matter who we are looking at, they are a son, a daughter. They can be a wife, or a husband; a brother or a sister. They have friends who find comfort in their company. They have people who love them and they love others. And, like in the case of Rush, some people are struggling from ailments or with other things in their life.

Some might find that death is welcome compared to what they are going through, but even then, we should never celebrate one’s death.

We can do better.