Porn The Vote

You have made some compelling points in responding to my original blog.  I recently read an article about Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law.  Apparently, Barbara Wagner, an Oregon Grandmother, had her doctor’s prescription for a chemotherapy treatment turned down by her state medicaid provider, Oregon Health Plan, who instead, offered her the choice of assisted suicide!

Ms. Wagner’s response was, “I told them, I said, who do you think you are?  You know, to say that you’ll pay for my dying, but you won’t pay to possibly help me live longer?”  She recounted this in an interview with Portland television station KATU T.V. in July of 2008.  Wagner died later that fall.

If this is any indication, euthanasia and the right to die in an aging Baby Boomer population is not 25 years distant, but exists in the here and now.  If Ms. Wagner’s situation is an indicator, and I firmly believe it is, assisted suicide will become a eugenics method to reduce costs of end of life treatments for the elderly.  Death is cheaper than life.

Interestingly, since assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon, the states Medicaid health plan has reduced the number of treatments it it will cover, from 745 treatments in 1997, when assisted suicide became legal, to 503 treatments in January of 2008.  A dose of death seems to be the solution increasingly preffered in Oregon.

The increased use of eugenics will occur parallel to assisted suicide and euthanasia.  The elderly, the infirm, the mentally ill and undesireables will be targeted.  Currently we see increases of sex and race selective abortions.  Didn’t we condemn Margaret Sanger and the Nazi’s for these very same ideologies and practices?  The past it present, and the future is now.

What is life?  Visualize Rodin’s The Thinker.  Rene’ Descartes famously stated, “Cogito ergo sum.”  I think therefore I am.  The implication is that existence and self awareness are predicated on the ability to think, reason and to be self aware of ones own existence.  Should Artificial Intelligence ever be created that evolves to self awareness, and I believe it will, then what?  These moral and ethical questions posed are stupefying in their depth and complexity.

Humans define ourselves as possessions of souls.  What if a machine became fused with a soul?  Someday soon man will be required to answer these questions.  How will we respond?  Will our ethical IQ be able to match the challenge, or will we continue to act as petulant, spoiled children convinced we are gods?

Michael Wachter

mwachter2002@gmail.com

“The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love – They are gone.  They are gone to feed the roses.  Elegant and curted is the blossom.  Fragrant is the blossom.  I know but I do not approve.  More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.”

  – “Dirge Without Music”  by Edna St. Vincent Millay

July 11th marked the 15th Anniversary of the suicide death of Shannon Wilsey, who was better known as the adult actress Savannah.  She died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, CA at 11:20 am, the victim of a self inflicted gunshot wound.  She was 23 years old.

Savannah’s was the first of high profile suicides that rocked the adult industry over the course of that following year.  Cal Jammer, (Randy Potts), committedsuicide on Jill Kelly’s front lawn.  Alex Jordan (Karen Elizabeth Hughes) was found dead by her best friend and adult actress Summer Knight in a closet where she had hung herself.

Savannah’s death ended the career of the Adult Industry’s first bonafide  superstar.  No one has ever come close to equalling her.  Some would argue that Jenna Jameson surpassed her, however she was merely a Savannah clone who completely lacked charisma, presence, beauty, and character.  Every era of the Adult Industry produces its own star.  The first was recently deceased Marilyn Chambers. 

Some of my favorites are: Seka, Christy Canyon, Sharon Mitchell, Shauna Grant, Jasmine St. Claire, and currently Belladonna.  But Persia Monir is an entity unto her own that takes porn to a new level.  Not only is she educated and has made a personal choice to be in the adult industry, she is the only star I have seen that can totally disassociate her role in the industry from her personal life.  Persia Monir is a true actress and I hope to see her go mainstream in the very near future.

It is my feeling as well that truthis found in what Summer Knight pointed out about Karen Hughes being unable to cope with the realities and pressures of the Adult Industry.  Her observation applies also to Colleen Applegate and Shannon Wilsey.  All sought to be loved.  Each created a persona that began as a dream and ended as a nightmare.

Fans of Adult Actresses do not love real women.  They only love a creation, and have little or no sense that Shannon Wilsey was a real person.  Savannah was merely a role she played.  At some point though Savannah became essentially her dominant personality, and Shannon Wilseyhad diminished.  Shortly before her suicide she was dating Pauly Shore.  Shore, upon breaking up with her, described her in the context of being a porn star, and stated guys like him attract porn stars like a disease.  Defining Shannon in such terms separated her from her true person.  Shannon was devastated.

What has always fascinated me about adult actresses is not what they do but rather who they are.  Porn is about sex to a degree, but after a certain point, sex becomes boring.  Ultimately, it is the persom who fascinates.  Or should.

Granted there are many Adult Actresses who are self absorbed, narcissistic bitches, who crave fan attention because they lack any sense of personal identity on an internal level.  They are empty, soulless, and attracted to porn fans for vampiric purposes.

However, like Persia Monir, not all Adult Actresses are of this mold.  Many others I suspect, would welcome being recognized as people.  At the end of the day they are.  Each is a person.

Michael Walckter

MWALCKTER2002@gmail.com