Deaths

2009 has seen many deaths of celebrities so far - Natasha Richardson, Bea Arthur, David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Dom DeLuise, Jack Kemp, Marilyn French, England Dan Seals, John Updike, Andrew Wyeth, Pat Hingle, Paul Harvey, James Whitmore, Marilyn Chambers, Dan Miller (Nashville news anchor), Gale Storm, Billy Mays, Kenny Rankin, and others.

I'm glad Deepak Chopra is speaking out about Michael Jackson's addiction to prescription drugs (Demerol,Oxycontin) and how doctors enable celebrities. The following is from various sources.

"There are a plethora of doctors in Hollywood. They're drug peddlers, they're drug pushers, they just happen to have a medical license," Chopra said. "I hope this episode today. this tragic death of a great human being will bring to light the huge problem we have in Hollywood with some of the medical establishment. The celebrity doctors who not only imitate people into the drug experience, but then they perpetuate it so that the people become dependent on it. I will be bold enough to identify these people at a certain time, but I think the police should do their own investigation. I think this is something that really should be investigated because it's a disease. The number one cause of drug addiction in the world - and particularly in the United States - is not street drugs, but medical prescriptions given legally by physicians."

From Lisa Marie Presley's blog where she revealed that Jackson feared that he would die like her father, Elvis Presley.

I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him.

I was in over my head while trying.

I had my children to care for, I had to make a decision.

The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow.

After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret.

Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation.

At some point, I truly became Indifferent, until now.

As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play The exact Scenario I saw happen on August 16th, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted.

Any ill experience or words I have felt towards him in the past has just died inside of me along with him.

I copied this from Hollywood Memoir about a similar death and what disclosure might help prevent.

I hope David Carradine's family members and publicists will not try to cover up David Carradine's death. A lot of people die of autoerotic asphyxia. It's about time we raise awareness.

Please don't cover up his death. There is nothing wrong with people's desire for physical pleasure. We all pursue physical pleasure.

What's wrong is the fact that society is not talking about autoerotic asphyxia. What's wrong is that David's death was not prevented. The society looks at this as something so wrong and twisted. Remember back in the 40's? Your hands supposed to fall off if you do "it".

I guarantee you that public awareness will be raised in the future regarding autoerotic asphyxia. It's sad that now is not the time. We'll have to wait for more deaths, possibily more famous deaths, so people will talk about it again. I hope their family will openly talk about it without covering up.

Knowledge and awareness is power. It will save lives and create better world. Imagine INXS still has the original member. Imagine David Carradine would live to make several more movies and host more TV shows. We are losing good things in the world, because we refuse to raise awareness.

We sell "Girls Gone Wild" "Viagra" and "Extenze" on TV. But we refuse to talk about what's killing people. We see a lot of campaigns saying "Talk to your kids about smoking & drugs". A campaign like that might have prevented David's death.

Get over it people. David had a healthy life. I hope he's death will raise awareness to save countless others who didn't know the danger.

So, I say this now:
Hanging is a dangerous act. Media won't tell you, but a lot of people die from it. Most people do it sitting down and die sitting down. If you must experiment, have your partner with you. If you have done it many times and if you think you have a handle on it? That's when it's going to kill you.

I wanted to correct the misspellings and grammar mistakes in some of the quotes but managed to refrain from that and from inserting [sic] in the quotes.