California compassion

We Californians are a compassionate lot. At least we like to think we are. And we'll do almost anything to make ourselves appear so.

Take as examples two suicide-related issues being discussed in California today.

First, the California Assembly will soon vote on legislation by Democrats Patty Berg of Eureka and Lloyd Levine of the San Fernando Valley that would legalize physician-assisted suicide. The San Francisco Chronicle is endorsing AB654, saying "It should be an individual's choice, not the government's."

Secondly, in San Francisco, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has already forked over $1.6 million of the estimated $2 million necessary for a Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier study. The barrier itself is expected to cost somewhere between $15 million and $25 million and would be designed to prevent the twenty or so suicides each year from the bridge.

Californians, with our unique brand of logic, can support both of these issues simultaneously because doing so makes us feel superior. We are compassionate.