Some things are great relief, others are just irritating.

Good news out of Alabama today!  That young autistic boy held hostage by the crazy guy has been rescued, and is, physically, at least, ok.  I won't take any bets on his mental well being after five days of captivity with a crazy old man, but at least the FBI got him out alive.  His mother has to be ecstatic!

However.

During the newscast by MSNBC today, the reporter, to pass some air time before the press conference, interviewed a local pastor.   Meh, I guess it was for local "color", or just to pass the time, but talking about passing, the pastor said something that irritates me every time I hear it.

In referring to the suspect the FBI killed, he noted that the man had "passed on".  Aaaarrrrgggggggggg!

No!  He didn't GO anywhere.  He died.  He was shot and killed.  He didn't pass go, he didn't collect $200.  They blew his frikking brains out, the few he possessed, anyway.  It was not a natural death, unless you count the usual manner of redneck death after calling out, "Hey ya'll, watch this!"

In Texas, where I grew up, they used to say (and probably still do) people "pass away".  We have a lot of other euphemisms for the act of dying besides those, too.

croaked
kicked the bucket
pushing up daisies
dirt nap
Shuffled off the mortal coil

And about fifty others.

Americans have this unhealthy phobia about death and dying.  For a christian country which supposedly believes they'll meet their maker and all their dead relatives after they die, we sure seem to hate talking about it!  I've got news for you.  I know plenty of people for whom that particular eternity would better resemble hell than heaven, as their relatives are not the folks they'd rather pass the afterlife with at all.

We'd be better off just telling it how it is.  People die.   They are killed, or they die of natural causes.  The sooner we face that natural truth, the better.

Then maybe we'll start understanding how terrible it is that so many of the things we have or do in our modern society kill so many people, and how simply disgusting it is that we pass it off with euphemisms and try hard to forget it.