Tomas Young

Peaceful Sunday morning. Rare.

Flipping through Rolling Stone magazine and I come a cross a couple of pages on Tomas Young. Tomas Young was shot above the collarbone and paralyzed from the chest down five days into his deployment to Iraq in 2004.. He suffered a pulmonary embolism and a brain injury in 2008. He has had his colon removed.

He has had enough and plans to end his life in May by removing the tube through which he ingests food.

On the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war last month he published an open letter to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on Truth-Dig.com. It reads, in part: "On every level - moral, strategic, military and economic - Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences."

In explaining his ultimate decision Young says: "I wouldn't be making this decision if I didn't have to have almost everything done for me by somebody else. I don't want to see my body deteriorate more than it already has. I also haven't felt positive stuff happening in the world for a very long time. I just figured now is the time to go."

The ultimate cruel irony for those who give everything to protect our lifestyle, to try to make a difference in the world, is that those in power are consistently making conscious decisions to undermine quality of life and the dignity of being a human being.

"I also haven't felt positive stuff happening in the world for a very long time."