Shame on the Salt Lake Tribune!
What was the point of the Trib reporting on the death of Joshua Ruzicka? How could they simply disregard the wishes of a grieving family? Why can’t the journalist even get his facts straight?
They correctly reported that my dear niece Janny Merrill died of an overdose. I could not be prouder of my brother Lance Merrill, his wife, and my family for how they strive to make this tragedy a force for good by talking about it openly. That being said; how each family chooses to grieve the loss of a child is a very personal decision and should be respected.
The article miss-quoted my bother as saying “it’s their own damn fault†and inferring he was speaking of the Ruzickas. He was discussing an overburdened judicial system.
They also implied the Mormon Church is “turning a blind eye†to this crisis. Such implications are pandering to those who love to bash Mormons. I am by no means a believer in the Mormon faith. However, let’s give credit where credit is due. In local homeless shelters you’ll find LDS service missionaries rolling up their sleeves, doing the work few of us dare attempt. First Lady Huntsman, an active member of the LDS faith, has been vociferous in her fight to help people with addictions and to educate the public at large.
I am a politically active, liberal gay man living with HIV who has personally dealt with addiction. I have, sometimes successfully, advocated for many liberal causes at the Utah State Legislature and in Washington DC. I have only on very rare occasion fallen on the same side of a political issue with Gayle Ruzicka. That being said, I am honored to consider Gayle and her family among my loyal friends in Utah. Not because of her political views, which I often find abhorrent, but because of her integrity and truly wonderful sense of humor.
We all must fight this tragedy in our own way. I wish more of our youth fighting this terrible disease had families like the Ruzickas. ALL those heroes who chose to deal with it in a public way should be applauded, not only the one’s who support the Trib’s views. Mothers who have held their children in their arms through the horrors of withdrawal are also heroes and should be exalted. If some of those mothers wish to grieve in private that too should be respected no matter who they are. Shame on the SL Tribune!
Stuart Merrill
January 8th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Stuart,
I appreciate you sharing your viewpoint. As a lesbian in Utah who has often felt demonized by Gayle Ruzicka, it was with very mixed feelings that I read the article, and I had to fight my baser instincts that wanted to gloat a little over her family tragedy. I’m not proud of that, but I admit I felt it. However, because she is a high-profile member of this community who has often sought public attention for her causes, I think the paper was justified in printing the story. There are a lot of tragic events that I’m sure the families involved would prefer to have stay out of the papers, but does that make them un-newsworthy? Gayle has sought out the media spotlight and unfortunately a side-effect of that is that what happens in your family, however private you wish it was, becomes newsworthy. It doesn’t mean she should be forced to become a public spokesperson for addiction issues if she chooses not to, as your brother has so admirably done, but I don’t think her wishes to keep it private prevent it from being a newsworthy story. She has hurt a lot of people, and while I don’t necessarily think this was the reason for running the story, I do think any real or perceived hypocrisy among those who would set themselves up as morally superior to the rest of us, is newsworthy.
I am sorry for her and her family’s loss. I only hope she remembers what she said about her son (”He wasn’t this hard core, mean, awful thing that you think about when you hear about someone who took drugs.”) and realizes that statement could apply to 99% of the people she demonizes.
Sheri
January 8th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Stuart - I missed the trib article - do you have a link?
January 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Here is the link to the article:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7893972
January 8th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Sheri did a remarkable job of expressing my feelings toward this story. I feel for Ruzicka’s loss, but I have listened to that glamor girl speak so harshly of others in the public spotlight for so long that I am not about to throw her a great deal of slack. The Tribune article was entirely appropriate. Also, I did not read the comment referred to by Stuart as being directed to the Ruzickas - the intended scope appears much broader than a single family.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:51 am
From today’s Trib: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7941089
Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said being gay is a choice and opposes the proposal. She said if Johnson’s bill passes it would “spill over” into retirement and health insurance for gay partnerships.
“Homosexuals have a lot, a lot of jobs. They work everywhere,” she said. “Everybody gets discriminated against sometimes.”
See, now I’m angry again, and I say she gets what she deserves. Being a drug addict is a choice. I really hoped she would be a bit quieter this year, after what has happened. But if she can’t have the decency to lay low after her son’s death, then bring it on, bitch. She deserves any bad press she gets, regardless of the topic. I would like to ask anyone who feels personally attacked by this woman to start writing letters and emails to her, reminding her of the compassion she wished her son would have been shown. I have parents too, and I wish they didn’t have to read the things she says about gay people, but I don’t get to make that choice.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:16 am
sheri:
The hypocrisy and denial is truly stunning, isn’t it?
January 11th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
No kidding, Larry. It shouldn’t surprise me anymore, but I guess I had my hopes up that her family tragedy would temper her vitriol just a bit this Legislative session. I should have known better. I’ve long wished that something would break through her holier-than-thou-ness and help her see how much actual damage her words cause for individuals in the groups she judges. But if the death of a son, who by his actions was part of a group easily yet often wrongly judged by people, then I guess there’s no hope for her at all, and I will know better next time than to feel any sympathy at all for her.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
drug addiction is not a choice …according to some research, as in the cases of some homosexuality, it isn’t a choice, or in the case of some drug addicts, they choose to become addicts, some are just more susceptible to the vagaries of condition, and are born drug addicts. Like we may soon see that a person has a “criminal” gene. This likely the case with our poor afflicted president.
We will have to tolerate this behavior and incorporate it into our panel of not so desirable behavior based on genetics. Or perhaps allow for it, because ’tis no more than what god made you after all.
At what point does society evolve to accept the “born in” traits of people? What are demonstrable born in traits? What science or litmus will become the benchmark? Until then, behavior defines what people label others as, and laws and government as well.
As for gayle ruzicka( exactly what kind of name is that anyway?), it is quite likely that she has ATD, attentive tolerance disorder, and should be sympathized, in the same manner you would a person with Tourettes’ at Temple.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the world fit into clearly delineated guidelines?
Great movie everyone must see, “idiocracy”, takes place in the future, but nowadays, I walk around like it is the idiot future of the movie. A good laugh.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
and to everyone in the SLC region concerned about “drugs”.
Look around, where is the junk coming from? Where is the meth from? Who is dealing it? What are their ties and connections to your communities? Who is fronting it?
Start putting names and stories to faces, and you will solve the problem, if the will, to not be surprised, and follow through on what investigations find…, follow it to its source.
It will be quite a ride, and there are many respected players, as well as the more unseemly.
As it is connected, nothing so endemic and pervasive can filter down to such levels without someone in authority misusing power to continue the day to day business of drugs for money. That or we are believe that law enforcement is simply incompetent. Or the last dull event, we realize there is nothing we can do about the problem, so we incarcerate and then live in a police state at the street level. This being the equivalent of throwing up ones hands at the problem, and living with the fallout.
If you were plan your own investigations, be armed while doing so, under authority of law.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Glenn The Vigilante. Nail any drug dealers lately?
Milton Freidman advocated legalizing all drugs.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Who’s the vigilante?
It’s all legal, watching the drug dealers and then informing authorities and then watching what happens, or doesn’t… and then community and public follow up, can be very revealing.
Milton Friedman, he’s a source. Sure legalize them, then the government can become the overarching drug dealer. Like the legally licensed drug dealers don’t have all the latitutde they need to peddle.
They leave other drugs illegal for obvious reasons, it is far more profitable all the way around. Enforcement, patrolling, incarceration, ajudication, mandated classes, all very profitable, and a simple secondary economy besides the payola offered government to look the other way.