Sunday, June 24, 2007
A Tragedy Worth Pondering
Good guy former judge, former Denver City Attorney, Larry Manzanares shot himself in the Highline Canal next to Eisenhower Park (about 10 blocks from where I'm typing this). He was 50, a Harvard grad with a nice family. That's rough. A lot of people are blaming the special prosecutor for going so hard at him for allegedly stealing a laptop from the city and loading it with porn. He certainly was becoming the butt of an awfully lot of jokes. I think there is an alternative theory. He finally realized he was going to have to spend the next several months to years with his very abrasive lawyer, Gary Lozow, and it broke his will to live.
I liked this guy a lot--a self imposed death penalty and eternal damnation are way too harsh penalties for what at worst was helping oneself to a soon to be obsolete laptop gathering dust in a city closet. Everyone who was pushing for real punishment after his resignation from the city ought to question their morality, at least their sense of proportion vis a vis the Christian ideal of forgiveness. Of course, no one actually forced Manzanares to pull the trigger.
My bright line rule is that those with children cannot under any circumstances commit suicide as it just greenlights that sad, wrong choice for the little ones.
I liked this guy a lot--a self imposed death penalty and eternal damnation are way too harsh penalties for what at worst was helping oneself to a soon to be obsolete laptop gathering dust in a city closet. Everyone who was pushing for real punishment after his resignation from the city ought to question their morality, at least their sense of proportion vis a vis the Christian ideal of forgiveness. Of course, no one actually forced Manzanares to pull the trigger.
My bright line rule is that those with children cannot under any circumstances commit suicide as it just greenlights that sad, wrong choice for the little ones.
Labels: Suicide Public office, Tragedy
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 10:14 AM 
