Onstage
suicide as an artistic expression
Aaron
Ladage
AMES,
Iowa (U-Wire) -- On Saturday night, a man
in St. Petersburg, Fla., planned to take
his own life. At the last minute, however,
someone stepped in before he could follow
through with his plan.
Normally,
this wouldn't have the least bit of newsworthiness
in Iowa. But in this instance, the man chose
to share his death with thousands of concertgoers
and millions of Internet viewers. And the
"someone" who stopped him just
happened to be Florida's attorney general,
along with the city of St. Petersburg.
In
one of the most publicized stunts of all
time, heavy metal band Hell on Earth announced
a month ago its plans to host the assisted
suicide of a terminally ill man during one
of its concerts. Immediately, city and state
officials protested and passed an ordinance
banning the stunt.
The
band refused to comply, saying they would
proceed from a secret location and broadcast
the suicide on its Web site, regardless
of the law. If it weren't for an attack
on the band's Web site that shut it down
and most likely stopped the suicide in the
process, the event probably would have gone
on as planned.
I
know what you're thinking. It's sick. It's
disturbing. It's a perfect example of the
levels people will stoop to just for a little
bit of self-serving attention.
Unfortunately,
that's simply not true.
Don't
get me wrong -- anyone who would actually
pay money to watch the suicide is definitely
sick and disturbed. But the band is not
as much at fault as the public and the Florida
government would like to make it seem.
Billy
Tourtelot, the lead singer and only member
of Hell on Earth to voice his opinion on
the issue, claims to be a long-time supporter
of assisted suicide. The key word here is
"assisted" -- this isn't an attempt
to glorify the pointless, selfish act of
taking your own life. They're not putting
a 17-year-old kid who was just dumped by
his girlfriend onstage with a shotgun.
This
is a terminally ill man whose life has been
reduced to a regimen of pain medication,
doctor's bills and the knowledge of knowing
his life will end very soon. He has both
the right and the choice of when and how
to end his existence. Whether he does it
in a hospital bed or at a concert is irrelevant
-- he can make his own decisions.
Instead
of allowing people to decide for themselves
on the issue of assisted suicide, Florida
has taken away the rights of everyone involved,
including the audience, the band and most
importantly, the terminally ill man himself.
As
despicable as it may be, showing a suicide
onstage is both a political statement and
performance art. It may not be as socially
acceptable as Yoko Ono's famed clothes-cutting
performances, but the intent is the same:
Artistic expression of an issue helps both
the performers and the audience understand
and internalize political viewpoint. The
political viewpoint in this case just happens
to involve the touchy subject of death.
Taking
away the right to express a viewpoint --
especially an expression that was only made
illegal as the state's last defense -- is
censorship, plain and simple. It may be
unpopular, but Hell on Earth's decision
is backed by the First Amendment. It may
be the same amendment that has allowed Larry
Flynt to degrade women for decades and Ozzy
Osbourne to eat bats onstage, but it's also
the amendment that allows you to speak your
mind and bring about change without fear
of persecution, imprisonment, or -- gasp
-- even death.
This
column first appeared in the Iowa State
Daily at Iowa State University, Ames.
|
