Progress in State Legislation We’ve Covered
Maryland
The Maryland End of Life Option Act has faltered in committee. The Chair of the Committee, also the chief Senate sponsor, told the media the bill didn’t have the votes and cancelled its planned hearing. A Committee staff member told CLN Board member Bill Samuel she didn’t foresee any rescheduling. While the bill received hearings in the House and isn’t officially dead, Maryland has a short session. The leadership generally doesn’t bring up bills unlikely to pass.
Ohio
Press Release: House Committee Begins Hearings on Legislation to Prohibit State Funding of Death in Ohio. We covered this bill recently – it links death penalty abolition with prohibiting abortion funding and euthanasia.
Oscars 2025
Themes of peace and respect for human rights got a couple of shout-outs at the March 2 Academy Awards (Oscars).
The best documentary: No Other Land, produced by a group of Palestinians and Israelis, focuses on violence in the West Bank. Basel Adra, a Palestinian who worked on the film, called on the world to "stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people." Journalist Yuval Abraham said he saw Adra as a brother and challenged US foreign policy for blocking paths to peace, adding, "Can't you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel's people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It's not too late for life for the living."
Accepting the best actor award for The Brutalist, Adrien Brody said his performance represented "the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering." He added: "if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked."
For a subtle nod to the humanity of the unborn child, the host joked while showing pictures of certain actors back in their youth. He showed one and then another, and then the punchline -- the youth picture of Timothee Chalamet:
That same host, Conan O’Brien, did a humor skit several years back also humanizing the preborn child: part 1 and part 2.
In Theaters Now: My Dead Friend Zoe
Two women were veterans of Afghanistan. Merit is still alive, going to a court-ordered therapy group. Zoe interacts with Merit as a hallucination others don’t see. As Merit deals with family problems, we know throughout that Zoe is dead. Cheerfully so.
Spoiler alert: Until the end, we don’t know how Zoe died. Some will assume we’ll be told what combat incident killed her. Actually, she got home and shot herself. This goes with the dark truth: more soldiers die by suicide than by combat. The movie’s conclusion is the need for more therapy available to veterans.
This is certainly true. Veterans have already gone through war and desperately need the help. But not putting people into wars in the first place would be far more effective.
The Latest on the Blog
Rachel MacNair offers thoughts on the new Trump administration in Not Panicked / Always Panicked.
John Whitehead’s remarks at our quarterly anti-nuclear vigil: Turning Back the Nuclear Threat: Some Practical Steps.
Quote of the Week
Pope Francis
Message to the Pilgrimage of the the Movement for Life, March 8, 2025.
Your commitment . . . places the dignity of the person at the centre and prioritizes those who are weaker. The unborn child represents, par excellence, every man and woman who does not count, who has no voice. To place oneself on his or her side means standing in solidarity with all the world's discarded.