Many Understand Courage It Took Mom To Kill Daughter
Deborah Rockstrom has her supporters. Admirers even.
Bagpipes readers have lauded the courage it took for Rockstrom to take her own severely impaired daughter’s life.
“I only hope I could do for my own daughter what she did for hers,” said Cheryl Hancock.
Fourteen-year-old Erin Rockstrom’s active world collapsed a year and a half ago when a pistol went off during a party.
With a bullet lodged in her brain stem, Erin no longer could speak, walk or hold up her head. She could barely communicate, but one message got through: She wanted to die. On Feb. 21, her mother obliged.
“The real crime,” said Gary Kavanaugh of Spokane, “was committed when irresponsible parents left a gun where kids could get ahold of it and play with it and do the damage they did.”
“You needed to know the Rockstrom family in order to really appreciate the fact that this mother’s pain prompted her to do what she has done,” said Kavanaugh’s wife Karen.
“Deborah Rockstrom’s decision to kill her daughter may be incomprehensible to people who have not personally witnessed the horrible shreds of life that modern medical techniques manage to preserve, but I understand why she did it and I would not be able to convict her if I were on the jury hearing her case,” said Bonnie Frederick of Pullman.
As Lisa Pra put it, writing from personal experience, public resources are available to families who put a loved one in “an overcrowded, understaffed nursing facility.”
“But if you choose to bring that person home, good luck. You can expect to lose some of those benefits.”
Where there’s smoke, there’s ire
Callers were not nearly as understanding of smokers who brought a class action lawsuit against tobacco companies over their addictions.
“This whole country has an attitude that everybody is responsible for their problems,” said Louella Toya of Warden. “We don’t want government interference, yet we want to sue all the companies if we smoke, if we drink. What’s happening to our free will?”
“I see the endless possibilities of everyone in America being involved in a class action lawsuit,” said Rebecca Wagner.
“I have to wonder,” said Larry Brown, “how many people are actually stopping smoking when they’re (pursuing) this case.”
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