By Rady Ananda

Dr. Jack Kevorkian passed away on June 3, at the age of 83. His “compassionate and common sense approach to ending human suffering is but one facet of his decades-long advocacy of the Ninth Amendment.”

So I wrote in 2009 after hearing him speak in a gymnasium packed with 2,500 people.

Best known for assisting 130 terminal patients to end their lives, and actually even killing one who was too weak to do so himself (for which he was imprisoned for eight years), Kevorkian was a fierce opponent of growing government intrusion into our daily lives, including the right to end it.

Suffering from ALS, a progressive, usually fatal, neurodegenerative disease, 52-year-old Thomas Youk expressly permitted Kevorkian to end his life for him in 1998. Though unsuccessfully prosecuted for several assisted suicides (known as iatric euthanasia), his video of the procedure enabled the state to convict him.

What surprised me at that February 2009 speech was his reading of Laurence Britt’s Fourteen Points of Fascism, using contemporary U.S. examples. I had no idea “Dr. Death” held membership in the red pill society.

While in prison, Dr. Kevorkian wrote Amendment IX: Our Cornucopia of Rights, a brief book, only 76 pages, but packed with quotes from our founders to great writers and activists.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ~Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Written in 2005, Cornucopia lays out the history behind the 9^th Amendment, and clarifies the dire need to invoke its “seismic powers.” Kevorkian dares us to resist US cacocracy – rule by the absolute worst elements of society:

“Exploiting the awesome authority of Amendment IX, We the People can mount that effort and divert America’s morally degraded course now headed toward degeneration, redirecting it instead toward the lofty goal of a truly civilized open society befitting a great nation—one that guarantees absolute human freedom and universal social justice—unencumbered by any kind of secularly nonsensical religious morality.

“We the People who care and dare must begin now to set the stage for the realization of America’s reason for existence, before the magnitude of our enslavement renders such a goal hopelessly quixotic. That calls for boldly preemptive action involving considerable risk.”

Cornucopia calls for a complete boycott of state and federal elections, massive protest and non-violent civil disobedience demanding that “all our natural rights be proclaimed, untrammeled and respected.” He also warns us to expect a Waco-type reaction from the powers that be.

“In so doing, we must never forget that the nature of the regime we will thereby forcefully ‘petition’ is fascist, but disarmingly subtle and no less determined, confident, and ruthless than others of that ilk.”

Oh, they will and have used violence against protesters and innocents alike. When he warns of secret detentions and murder, we have seen that through the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and the secret state police. We watched Obama admit to murdering – rather than trying in a court of law – Osama bin Laden. (That the claimed murder is a hoax makes this nation’s brazen disregard for the Rule of Law no less horrific.)

After referring to US involvement in stopping the advance of Hitler, he writes:

“Now it’s America that scorns and defies the United Nations, international law, the International Court of Justice, and worldwide public opinion in reckless and unprovoked aggression in a monomaniacal ‘crusade’ to proselytize its own political philosophy and, in the process, its way of life. There is no power on earth that can stop it, other than Americans themselves.”

He reminds me of those potent 10 two-letter words, “If it is to be, it is up to me.”

Rest assured, Jack Kevorkian, resistance grows daily here and abroad. The impact of your legacy will only grow with time.

Image by Rady Ananda.